Andhra Pradesh, a southern state in India, has received 294 bids from 184 companies for setting up of solar photovoltaic power projects.
As part of its first phase of solar initiatives, the state government invited companies to submit bids by 15 February 2013 for setting up 1GW of solar power projects.
A total capacity of almost 1.35GW was bid for by several companies.
Alpha InfraProp, which bid for several projects with a cumulative capacity of 80MW, topped the list of bidders in terms of capacity; Lanco Solar Energy stood next, with its bid for setting up a solar plant with 60MW capacity.
Other major bidders included Azure Green, Surya Green Power, Photon Energy, Pennar Industries and Surana Ventures.
Districts bordering the capital city Hyderabad, such as Mahboobnagar, Medak and Nalgonda have received the highest number of bids for solar installations, with an average of 40 bids each.
Bidders could apply for multiple locations with a maximum limit of 20MW capacity per bidder.
Other states such as Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan also introduced similar solar initiatives to boost power generation.
Although Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu announced tenders for 1GW of solar projects each, the latter received only 490MW worth of bids.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy stated that the early completion of solar, wind and bio-mass power projects is a priority for the power deficit state.
Companies such as Astonfield Renewables, Azure Power, Enerparc, KSK, Refex Energy, Roha Dyechem, Sunborne, Surana Ventures also attended the bidding process in Andhra Pradesh.
