Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) has announced that it is receiving an Expression of Interest (EOI) from companies to develop a 1.5GWdc solar PV project located in the Al Khazna area of Abu Dhabi.
EWEC said the project will involve the plant’s development, financing, construction, operation, maintenance and ownership and associated infrastructure. The project will be implemented based on an independent producer and the winner of the bid will enter into a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with the EWEC.
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“Solar energy is an integral pillar of EWEC’s strategy in transitioning our portfolio to a low-carbon system and decarbonising electricity production,” said Othman Al Ali, CEO of EWEC.
“We continue to strategically invest in developing world-leading renewable projects that significantly accelerate our journey to meeting 60% of Abu Dhabi’s total power demand from renewable and clean energy sources by 2035, in addition to actively contributing to the achievement of the UAE’s sustainability objectives,” he added.
The EWEC did not unveil further operational or financial details of the project. The application for the project is open until 2 October 2023.
The EWEC added that the Khazna Solar PV project will be similar in scale and production capacity to Al Dhafra Solar PV and Al Ajban Solar PV. In January, the EWEC issued a request for proposals (RFP) to 19 companies and consortiums to develop a new solar PV project in Abu Dhabi with a power generation capacity of 1.5GW.
Solar Module Super League member (SMSL) Trina Solar announced that it had delivered 800MW of solar modules to the Al Dhafra PV plant in the UAE in July.
In the same month, the EWEC also announced that it was considering four bids from companies interested in constructing the new 1.5GW Al Ajban solar plant. The terms of the arrangement included shared ownership of the project, with the UAE government owning 60% and the bidder the remaining 40%, and the signing of a long-term PPA with EWEC.