Gulf Construction Online - Five bid for Phase Three of Dubai solar park

UAE Focus

Five bid for Phase Three of Dubai solar park

01 June 2016

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has received five bids from international organisations for the third phase of the 5,000 MW Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

The lowest recorded bid at the opening of the envelopes was 2.99 US cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of Dewa. The next step in the bidding process will be the review of technical and commercial aspects of the bids to select the best one, he said.

Sources close to the bidding process have revealed that China’s Jinko Solar, France’s EDF as part of a consortium with Qatar’s Nebras Power, Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power, Abu Dhabi’s Masdar and a consortium led by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation were the bidders for the third phase of the solar park project. The third phase will add 800 MW to the solar park, which is anticipated to have a total capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030.

Dubai aims to secure seven per cent of its total power output from clean energy sources by 2020, rising to 25 per cent by 2030.

Dewa had released a request for the expression of interest (EOI) for the 800 MW third phase of the solar park in September 2015 and received 95 responses from international solar organisations. Dewa requested companies to submit their requests for qualification before November 2015. This was followed by a request for proposals (RFP) to qualified bidders in December.

Dewa is implementing the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 which includes initiatives such as the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which will be the largest single-site project to generate electricity from solar energy in the world, with a planned capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030, and total investment of $13.6 billion (Dh50 billion) to save approximately 6.5 million tonnes per annum in emissions.