Dubai pulls in 800 MW of solar development interest

Developer interest in the upcoming third phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar project is apparently quite strong, going by recent news. The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority apparently received 95 different expressions of interest from energy companies around the world looking to win a contract for the 800 megawatt development.

The project — being constructed in the Seih Al Dahal area of Dubai — is based around the Independent Power Producer model; and is expected to split into different portions to be developed by different bidders. The second phase of the very large project was developed by a consortium headed by the Saudi Arabian ACWA Power and Spainish Grupo TSK.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority is currently putting together the Request for Qualification documents to begin the third phase. These are expected to be ready before November. The current expectation is that the full tender will be released before 2016. The managing director and chief executive of DEWA, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, commented that the project’s generation capacity will total 3 gigawatts (GW) by the year 2030.

“Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has proved its flexibility to meet updates in the energy sector based on its success in getting the cheapest international price for solar power, at US$ 5.4 cents per kilowatt hour. We increased the targeted energy mix for renewable energy target in the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 from 1% to 7% by 2020 and from 5% to 15% by 2030.”

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/10/30/dubai-pulls-in-800-mw-of-solar-development-interest/