Dubai plans bids for US$3.3bn solar park

The Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) plans to issue the first bids for a AED12bn (US$3.3 bin) solar park by September that will generate 1,000 megawatts of power in the sheikhdom by 2030. “The bids will be out in the third quarter for the first 10-megawatt unit and the contract will be awarded in the fourth quarter of this year,” Fatima Alshamsi, senior manager for new business development at DEWA, said in an interview in Dubai. “The first unit will start operations in 2013.” DEWA, Dubai’s utility monopoly, awarded a contract last month to ILF Consulting Engineers to provide consultancy services for the Arabia Gulf’s largest solar park, which is to be built on a 48sqm area. It’s to be called Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park after the ruler of the emirate of Dubai, who’s also prime minister of the UAE. Dubai, the largest sheikhdom in the UAE after Abu Dhabi, is seeking to diversify sources of electricity and improve energy efficiency to ensure long-term supplies. The Supreme Council, its top energy policy body, announced targets last year to cut gas use for power generation to 70 percent from almost complete reliance now, with the rest divided between nuclear, coal and solar power. The Supreme Council has pledged AED120m in funding for the first 10-megawatt unit and the rest will be financed by public-private partnerships due to be defined once ILF Consulting Engineers completes its study, Alshamsi said. Separately, Dubai intends to award a contract to build its first private power station, the gas-fired Hassyan-1 plant, she said, adding that there was still no set deadline to name the winner for the project. HSBC Holdings and Emirates NBD agreed to offer a commercial debt facility of as much as US$200m as an incentive for bidders, DEWA said in September. Dubai, with about 9,000 megawatts of power generation capacity, plans to increase solar output to 1 percent of the total by 2020 and 5 percent by 2030, CEO Saeed Mohammed al-Tayer said on January 9. Atomic power and coal- fired output will account for 12 percent each, he said.