The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) plans to hold the first ever offshore wind energy auction in the country for a 1 gigawatt project in the western state of Gujarat.
SECI recently signed an agreement with the Gujarat government to set up India’s first offshore wind energy project. The agreement was signed during the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019 last month. SECI will be responsible for the entire auction process, as well as procurement of power from the resulting project. The project would bring an estimated Rs 15,000 crore ($2.1 billion) investment to the state of Gujarat. 
India has very ambitious targets for its currently non-existent offshore wind energy market. It has announced plans to have an installed offshore wind energy capacity of 30 gigawatts by 2030, with 5 gigawatts being installed by 2022. Progress towards this goal has been highly dismal. We reported in December 2017 that the government would auction 5 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by March 2019. No tender has been issued so far to that means.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had last year issued an Expression of Interest from offshore wind energy developers. It garnered immense interest from domestic as well as foreign developers. Prominent participants from India included Sterlite Power Grid, Greenko, Mytrah Energy, Inox Wind, Suzlon Energy, and ReNew Power Ventures. Some of the well-known foreign participants included Orstead, Alfanar, Deep Water Structures, EON Climate & Renewable, Terraform Global, Macquarie Group, Shell, and Senvion.
In preparation for the impending first-ever offshore wind energy tender, the MNRE recently issued Draft Offshore Wind Energy Lease Rules for comments and suggestions from stakeholders.
The draft rules propose that offshore sites be leased out to project developers for 35 years, including 5 years of prospecting and 30 years of project installation and operation. Several other provisions have been proposed that relate to fees, identification of project sites, penalties, cancellation of the lease, and restriction on wind energy generation to address any national security issues.
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