According to reports from Business Standard, MNRE Secretary Santosh Kumar Sarangi warned that developers of plain solar projects and some hybrid renewable energy projects may have to exit their contracts due to high tariffs making power generation unviable. Speaking at the BNEF Summit, Sarangi stated that many vanilla solar projects and other bids will not be sold, with some hybrid tenders where price discovery was higher also facing difficulty in finding buyers. The Secretary emphasized that developers will have to exercise their penalty-free exit option or renewable energy implementing agencies (REIAs) will eventually have to cancel the tenders.
As reported by Business Standard, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) issued an order in July 2026 allowing developers to exit Letters of Award (LoAs) without surrendering their transmission connectivity. The regulation provides that existing bank guarantees will remain valid until the project achieves commercial operation. A CERC staff paper from November last year revealed that more than 45 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity currently holds grid connectivity but has not progressed to the PPA stage. Sarangi noted that "If there is a requirement, there will be cancellations, but that is not our first option".
According to Business Standard, many developers are adding battery energy storage systems (BESS) to vanilla solar projects, making them more palatable to distribution companies (discoms). Sarangi explained that "We will continue our efforts with the discoms to ensure that power from those projects is procured" despite the challenges. The Secretary also highlighted that MNRE has asked renewable energy implementing agencies to explore ways to ensure distribution companies sign power purchase agreements for stalled projects, including changing the projects' profile.
As reported by Business Standard, Sarangi revealed that the government estimates the renewable energy sector will attract $13 trillion in investment by 2070 and $500 billion by 2030. The Secretary also provided updates on domestic manufacturing capabilities, stating that electrolyser manufacturing has already started in the country, with significant capacity in upstream components including membranes and separators expected to come onstream by 2030-31. Additionally, the country will have manufacturing of polysilicon operational by about 2029-30, with many manufacturers having made investment decisions in the ingots & wafers segment where 30-50 GW of capacity is expected to come up by June 2028.
