Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has attracted a large group of international developers for its much-anticipated Phase III 800 MW Solar PV tender.
Solar IPP companies such as Engie-Marubeni, SunEdison, ACWA Power, EDF-Nebras, FRV- Masdar, as well as Al-Fanar-Building Energy are some of the participants in the tender.
Leading solar panel manufacturers such as Jinko Solar (with RWE) and REC Solar(with Viverdis) have also jumped into the competition.
New entrants such as M+W & Stumpf Energy, Tetratech and Acciona-Swicorp are also in the list.
Unlike last year’s 100 MW pre-qualification round, DEWA has set very stringent qualification criteria for this 800 MW tender, both technical and financial, to reflect the strategic nature of this landmark project.
Whereas 49 companies submitted RFQ documents for last year’s Phase II tender (200 MW), it is believed that around 20 companies have submitted responses for the Phase III tender.
This reflects the fact that Phase III is much more ambitious and large-scale, with only a handful of companies being able to satisfy the criteria set by DEWA.
DEWA is expected to take a 60 percent share in the project company.
The RFP round of this tender is expected to be unveiled in early 2016.
Rajani Baburajan