Bahrainian authorities are inviting initial proposals from developers to build a 100MW solar project in the country due for commercial operation by September 2027.
Under a tender organised by the country’s Electricity and Water Authority (EWA), the winning bidder will be contracted to develop the Bilaj Al Jazayer solar project on a build-own-operate basis.
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The project will be developed under a public-private partnership, and the Bahrain government notes that the winning bidder will be responsible for the “full lifecycle” of the project for 25 years, including decommissioning and site restoration work.
The EWA also published a series of strict eligibility criteria for potential developers, with the government keen to work with an experienced solar project developer for the facility. Successful bidders must demonstrate a “successful track record” of work as a developer or engineering, procurement and construction contractor (EPC) for either three PV projects anywhere in the world, with a combined capacity of 100MW, or two projects in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with a combined capacity of 70MW.
Successful bidders must also have secured limited-recourse financing of at least US$150 million for three projects across the last ten years, and if they are bidding for the project individually, must have a net worth of at least US$50 million. For bids made by groups of companies, meanwhile, the group’s lead bidder must hold an equity ownership of at least 15% in the submitted project and boast an individual net worth of at least US$20 million.
The project was first announced in August of this year, at which point the capacity of the project was listed as 150MW. The EWA’s tender, launched last week, notes that the capacity of the project will be “at least 100MWac”, so the project could still reach this initial scale.
Renewable energy is a very small part of the Bahrain energy mix, with figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) showing that solar power was the only energy source outside of natural gas to contribute to domestic electricity generation in 2023, accounting for a mere 0.3% of generation. The government aims to meet 20% of its electricity demand with renewable energy by 2035, and projects such as the Bilaj Al Jazayer facility will be key in meeting that goal.
Until the announcement of the Bilaj Al Jazayer project, the largest solar plant in the country was the Sakhir project, first announced in 2023 with a planned capacity of 72MW. However, in April this year, the government announced that it had received four bids to develop the project, which had a stated capacity of just 44MW.
