About 400 companies are believed to have applied for the 150MW of solar PV on offer, resulting in bids of nearly 2GW. Some 30 companies will be selected to build one 5MW plant each by 2013.

For solar thermal, 40-50 companies submitted a total of about 2GW, compared with the target of 500MW.

The bids came despite efforts by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to set a limit of 5MW per applicant for PV and 100MW for solar thermal.

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