DEWA announces record low bid for 200MW Dubai CSP solar plant

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority said on Monday it had received a record low bid of $9.45 cents per kilowatt-hour for its 200MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant.

The bid, which MEED.com reports came from Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, is nearly 40 per cent lower than the previous international record. Others ranged from 10.85 cents to 17.35 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The plant, which aims to be the biggest CSP project in the world based on the independent power producer model, forms the fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park and is due to be operational by April 2021.

DEWA said it opened bids from four international consortiums after first inviting expressions of interest in October. It later received interest from 30 players and then seven requests for quotations from bidders and consortium partners in December.

Read: DEWA receives 30 expressions of interest for Dubai concentrated solar plant

The Requests for Proposal were sent to qualified bidders in January.

Dubai plans to eventually generate 1,000MW from CSP as part of plans to boost capacity at the solar park from 1,000MW by 2020 to 5,000MW by 2030.

The 13MW photovoltaic first phase of the plant became operational in 2013, followed by the 200MW second phase in March 2017.

The 800MW third phase is scheduled for 2020 followed by the CSP phase in 2021.

Read: DEWA signs purchase agreement with Masdar for 800MW solar project

Dubai is aiming to generate 7 per cent of total power output from clean energy by 2020, 25 per cent by 2030 and 75 per cent by 2050.