India cancels 4.5GW offshore wind tenders

The government of India, through its public sector company Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), has announced the cancellation of 4.5GW of offshore wind tenders.

The tenders include a 500MW project launched under the country's viability gap funding scheme, as well as a Request for Selection (RfS) for allocation of seabed lease rights to develop 4,000MW of offshore wind projects.

The 500MW project was to be built off the coast of Gujarat on a build-own-operate basis, with the successful bidder signing a 25-year power purchase agreement.

The tenders, which were released in 2024, failed to attract sufficient support. It is speculated that developers were deterred by the associated financial risks and the country's lack of infrastructure to support the development of these large-scale projects.

Have you read?
Variable speed pumped storage commissioned at Indian hydro complex
Siemens Gamesa to divest majority stake of Indian wind business

According to TGS, a global market research and intelligence company focused on offshore renewable energy, the cancellations underline a broader market challenge.

In the company's news article on the matter, Benjamin Swarbrick, APAC analyst at TGS 4C Offshore, said: “India has struggled to generate any tangible interest from developers for both active tenders, including the VGF-backed Gujarat site. India has a lot of work to do to get to a stage in which developers are interested in this market. An updated framework and major infrastructure upgrades are needed at least.”

India's coastline is approximately 7600km long, with wind speeds and ocean depths suitable for the development of offshore wind. And with its high-capacity turbines and higher Capacity Utilisation Factor (CUF), the renewable resource can help India meet its target of 500GW non-fossil fuel capacity and 30GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

However, the results of a study released in 2024 by the Centre of Excellence for Offshore Wind and Renewable Energy, show that while wind conditions off the Gujarat and Tamil Nadu coastlines are suitable, local port infrastructure will need to be upgraded to support offshore wind development.

Independent charity WRI India suggests that converting the country's offshore wind potential into actual installed capacity will be challenging. They cite the high capital cost of technology, the lack of domestic supply chains, the absence of turbine models suited to Indian wind regimes and the unavailability of resource-related datasets as the main hurdles.

Kunal Chandra, chief strategy & sustainability officer at RWE AG, commented on LinkedIn on the cancellation. "A huge missed opportunity for India, but to some extent an inevitable outcome of unfinished economic reforms. While India has done a great job in developing and sharing a "technical narrative" of what will it take to build world class infrastructure in India, it hasn't done enough to address transparency issues when it comes to attracting private investments into the country."

Chandra suggests creating an environment that fosters confidence for international companies to invest is critical to providing the infrastructure base required.

He adds: "Indian banks aren't capable to do the capital heavylifting alone and domestic equity capital is rather limited as most large Indian companies still use heavy (domestic) leverage for infrastructure developments...Hoping for future reforms that will lead to more energy investments!"

The news follows a recent announcement that Germany’s second offshore wind auction for 2025 failed to attract a single project bid for either of the two North Sea sites, N-10.1 and N-10.2. While the cause for the failed bids might differ from that of the Indian context, it is clear that global offshore wind markets are facing challenges that could have dire impacts on how countries meet their renewable energy targets.