Etihad ESCO awards contract for solar panel installation at 640 Hatta villas

Etihad Energy Services Company (Etihad ESCO), a unit of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, has awarded the tender for the installation of solar photovoltaic panels at 640 villas in Hatta to three firms.

Alsa Solar, Al Mustajed General Contracting, and the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence were selected in a process that originally included 26 companies.

The contract covers development, engineering, procurement, construction, operation services, maintenance and installation of the systems as part of the Hatta Comprehensive Development Plan.

The project forms part of the Shams Dubai initiative, which encourages building owners to install solar panels on their rooftops.

Etihad ESCO sent a Request for Proposal for the project, which is designed to reduce energy consumption and costs at the Hatta villas, in January.

The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018.

“DEWA launched Etihad ESCO to provide investment opportunities to companies who specialise in energy efficiency, in addition to financial institutions, and green technology and equipment suppliers. We are currently retrofitting over 30,000 buildings in the emirate in the first phase of the project, to ensure energy efficiency and manage energy demand,” said DEWA managing director and CEO HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer.

“The project is worth a total current investment of Dhs30bn. We expect to achieve financial savings of Dhs82bn, with expected savings of Dhs52bn,” continued Al Tayer.

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

To do so it is undertaking a number of projects including the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park and a 250MW hyderoelectric power plant in the mountains near Hatta Dam.

Read: Work on phase 3 of Dubai’s mega solar park to begin this month