Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), the subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Power Corporation (ADPower), has unveiled technical and commercial bids from five consortia for the development of the 2 GW Al Dhafra solar PV independent power producer (IPP) project in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). The group has received the world's lowest price for solar PV with a bid of AED 0.497/kWh, i.e. US$1.35c/kWh on a levelised electricity cost (LEC) basis. This is about 44% lower than the tariff set in 2017 for the 1,200 MW Noor Abu Dhabi solar project, which was commissioned in April 2019. Once operational in the second quarter of 2022, the Al Dhafra project will raise Abu Dhabi's solar PV capacity to 3,200 MW and will sell its power generation to EWEC under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA).
EWEC launched the tender for the constructionn of the 2 GW solar PV project in February 2019 and received expressions of interest (EoIs) from 48 developers in July 2019. It prequalified 24 bidders to build the project and received 5 bids in November 2019. Under the term of this tender, the successful bidder will take up to a 40% interest in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) company that will be set up for the project, while the remaining 60% equity will be held directly, or indirectly, by ADPower or other governmental entities.
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