Answer at a glance: A wind solar hybrid project combines wind and solar generation behind a single grid connection point. The two resources generate at different hours and in different seasons — solar through the middle of the day, wind through evenings, nights, and the monsoon — so their combined output is steadier, and uses the shared transmission connection far more fully, than either resource alone. India’s first hybrid tender, issued by SECI in 2018, struggled to attract two bidders; by FY2026, hybrid and hybrid-plus-storage formats had become the workhorse of the national tender pipeline. That journey — from experiment to default — is the clearest evidence of what hybrids change in the grid.
A hybrid project introduces no new generation technology. The turbines and modules are the same machines found in standalone plants. What changes is the delivery profile at the connection point — and in a power system where land and grid connectivity are as hard-won as generation capacity, that profile is the product. Three shifts matter:
Transmission planning and grid operation remain the remit of utilities, transmission planners, and system operators. The hybrid developer’s contribution sits on the generation side: engineering projects around those grid realities, in collaboration with utilities and regulators, so that each connection the system provides carries more — and steadier — clean energy. That is precisely the objective India’s policy framework set out.
Definition: A hybrid power project combines wind and solar generation behind a single connection point, either built together or created by adding one resource to an existing plant of the other. Under MNRE’s National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy (May 2018), a project qualifies as a hybrid when the rated capacity of one resource is at least 25% of the other’s. The policy’s stated aims are efficient use of land and transmission, and lower variability in renewable generation.
The complementarity works on two clocks:
None of this makes hybrid renewable energy weather-proof. A still, overcast spell will still dip. The claim is statistical, not absolute: paired resources cover far more hours, with far fewer deep gaps, than either can alone — which is why the grid-facing case for hybrids rests on profiles, not nameplate megawatts.
The policy came first. MNRE notified the National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy in May 2018, giving hybrids a formal definition and a procurement mandate. SECI issued India’s first wind-solar hybrid tender the same year — 1,200 MW of ISTS-connected capacity — and the debut was hard going. The initial tariff ceiling of ₹2.60/kWh attracted no bids and had to be raised to ₹2.70/kWh. When the auction concluded in December 2018, only two bidders had qualified: SB Energy won 450 MW at ₹2.67/kWh and Adani’s Mahoba Solar 390 MW at ₹2.69/kWh — 840 MW awarded of 1,200 MW on offer. One prominent market analyst called the two-bidder result “somewhat of a farcical exercise.”
The trajectory since then tells the real story. Tranche-II (2019) again closed partially subscribed, with 720 MW awarded. But Tranche-III, auctioned in January 2020, was fully subscribed at a then-record ₹2.41/kWh, and Tranche-IV (August 2021) was fully awarded at ₹2.34–2.35/kWh — with public-sector developers NTPC and NLC among the winners. By April 2021, India had already issued more than 12.3 GW of wind-solar hybrid tenders.
Procurement then broadened beyond SECI. NTPC’s own 1.2 GW hybrid tender, awarded in early 2025 at ₹3.38–3.44/kWh, was fully subscribed across five winners; state utilities including MSEDCL and GUVNL now run their own 500 MW hybrid auctions. And by Q4 FY2026, hybrid and hybrid-RTC tenders reached 6.2 GW in a single quarter — while not one standalone wind tender was issued. For a hybrid power project in India, the tender pipeline is now the natural home: the format has moved from experiment to default.
Read across eight years, three things changed. Participation: from two hesitant bidders to consistently full subscription and crowded winner lists. Procuring base: from a single central agency to central utilities and state DISCOMs alike. And the product itself: from plain renewable energy to a committed delivery profile — each generation of tenders asking hybrids to behave less like co-located plants and more like dependable suppliers. (All tariffs cited are published auction results, quoted as general market context — see the FAQ on why they are not comparable like-for-like across years.)
The clearest signal sits in the qualification criteria. Recent tenders have required hybrid projects to commit to minimum annual utilisation around 30%, against roughly 22% for standalone wind — a regulatory statement that hybrids are expected to be steadier, more dependable suppliers, not just two plants sharing a fence.
The next rung is storage. A hybrid covers many more hours than a single resource, but it remains weather-driven; where the requirement is a guaranteed evening block or round-the-clock delivery, developers add batteries. Complementarity does real work here too: because wind and solar already fill most hours between them, industry estimates suggest the battery needed to firm a hybrid is roughly 30% smaller than one firming solar alone. That is the architecture behind the FDRE and 24x7 formats now dominating national tenders — the subject of our companion articles on solar-plus-storage and firm, dispatchable renewable energy.
A useful way to hold the whole picture: solar covers the day; hybrid covers most of the day and year; hybrid plus storage delivers a committed profile. Each step up the ladder covers more hours — and each step is now a distinct, maturing segment of India’s procurement pipeline.
Demand is pulling in the same direction as tender design. India added a record 6.05 GW of wind capacity in FY2026 — the highest in nearly a decade — with commercial and industrial buyers driving roughly three-quarters of it through open access and captive routes, and MNRE crediting wind-solar hybrid projects as a key driver of that growth. Resolven develops utility-scale wind, solar, and hybrid projects across India’s high-resource states, engineering the wind-solar balance around each offtaker’s consumption profile and the realities of the grid — and adding battery storage where the requirement is firm or round-the-clock. Its 611 MWp Solapur plant in Maharashtra — 251 MW of solar, 324 MW of wind and 36 MW of battery storage, being developed with SJVN under a 25-year power purchase agreement — is the next rung of that ladder in practice. For enterprise stakeholders, these clean power solutions for enterprises translate complementary generation into dependable green power across more hours of the day — bridging today’s energy needs with tomorrow’s clean solutions.
Do the wind and solar plants have to share a site?
Usually they share a site and grid connection — that is what makes the land, transmission, and evacuation economics work. But the defining test is the delivery profile at the connection point; the 25% rated-capacity criterion, not co-location per se, is what qualifies a project as hybrid.
Why are recent hybrid tariffs higher than the record lows of 2020–21?
Published results moved from ₹2.34–2.41/kWh in 2020–21 to ₹3.38–3.44/kWh in 2025 — but these are not like-for-like numbers. Later tenders carry stricter utilisation floors and delivery obligations, module duties apply, and financing conditions shifted. Comparing the figures across years says more about how tender design evolved than about the economics of any single project.
How is a wind-solar hybrid different from FDRE?
A hybrid pairs two complementary but weather-driven resources; the output is steadier, not guaranteed. FDRE (firm and dispatchable renewable energy) adds storage and a contractual commitment to deliver an assured profile. Hybrid is the foundation; FDRE is the firmed product built on top of it.
Wind and solar each tell half a story; together they tell most of it. The tender record from 2018 to 2026 — two bidders then, 6.2 GW a quarter now — is the market’s own verdict: complementary generation profiles have moved from policy idea to the default architecture of India’s renewable buildout, ensuring reliable power while advancing climate commitments.
