Dubai CSP tender attracts world's lowest bid

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announced on Monday it has received a bid of just USD 0.0945 (EUR 0.0839) per kWh in the tender for 200 MW of concentrated solar power (CSP) capacity.

DEWA said in a statement it has opened the bids from four international consortia, without disclosing which one made the record low offer. The National reported that Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power and China’s Shanghai Electric (HKG:2727) formed one of the bidding groups. The Chinese company confirmed a few days earlier that its board had approved an investment of up to USD 40 million in the project.

The other consortia include Masdar, EDF (EPA:EDF) and Abengoa (BME:ABG), as well as Power China, Engie (EPA:ENGI) and SolarReserve. The fourth group includes China's Suncan and Al Fanar of Saudi Arabia, the newspaper said.

Total of 30 parties sent Expressions of Interest (EOI) by October 27, 2016. In early December, DEWA got seven Requests for Quotations and the Request for Proposals was sent in mid-January 2017.

The authority expects the solar thermal power plant to be up and running by April 2021.

“The UAE’s focus on renewable energy generation has led to a drop in prices worldwide and has lowered the price of solar and wind power bids in Europe and the Middle East," said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of DEWA.

This CSP plant will be the fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park project, whose first three phases use photovoltaics (PVs). The 13-MW first phase became operational in 2013, the 200-MW second phase went online in March 2017 and the 800-MW third phase is currently under construction and is seen to enter into service by 2020.

The entire complex is expected to be completed by 2030 with a total capacity of 5,000 MW. The project will help Dubai achieve its goals of generating 7% of its total power from clean energy by 2020, 25% by 2030 and 75% by 2050.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.887)

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