Lightsource BP Completes its First Solar Project In India
UK based Lightsource British Petroleum (BP), which is Europe’s biggest solar developer, announced that it just completed its first utility-scale solar farm in India. The project is situated in Wagdari, Maharashtra is said to generate 60MW of electricity, which is enough to power 20000 homes.
BP won the bid through a competitive 450MW tender process completed in September 2016. The solar farm was awarded by Solar Energy Corporation India (SECI) to Lightsource BP as one of the two contracts to be won by non-Indian firms after it bid for one of the lowest levels of viability gap funding (VGF) support at Rs.1.96 million per megawatt.
The project was financed in partnership with UK Climate Investments (UKCI), a joint venture between Macquarie’s Green Investment Group and the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Construction, module supply, and technical expertise for the project were provided by Sterling & Wilson and LONGi Solar, which supplied 200,000 modules to the 97-hectare development. Rabobank provided the project finance.
The company has not revealed any details on the cost of the project.
Oil major BP acquired a 43% stake in Lightsource in December last year. The British solar developer said its work with UKCI would lead to the development of at least 300MW of new Indian PV projects as well as the acquisition of operational assets. This was followed by the launch of a fund management platform by Lightsource BP and Indian private equity firm Everstone Group, with the initial Green Growth Equity Fund (GGEF) targeting £500 million to invest in green infrastructure in India in April.
