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Ewec invites Al-Sila wind bids

13 February 2025

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Abu Dhabi state offtaker Emirates Water & Electricity Company (Ewec) has invited prequalified developers to submit their proposals for a contract to develop a 140MW wind power project in Abu Dhabi.

The Al-Sila wind independent power project is a greenfield renewable energy project with a generation capacity of up to 140MW. When fully operational, it will more than double the existing wind generation capacity in the UAE.

Ewec said it expects to receive bids by Q2 2025.

Companies understood to have expressed interest in bidding for the contract include Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and Jera, France’s Engie and EDF Renewables, Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power and Alfanar, and Beijing-based PowerChina, among others.

Ewec has not disclosed the list of prequalified bidders, but industry sources say most of the companies that expressed interest also passed the prequalification phase.

The Al-Sila wind project will involve the development, financing, construction, operation, maintenance and ownership of the wind farm and associated infrastructure. 

The project will follow Abu Dhabi’s independent power project (IPP) model, where developers enter into a long-term power-purchase agreement with Ewec as the sole procurer of electricity. 

Ewec expects the project to generate enough clean electricity to power 36,000 homes, displacing 190,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

It will also directly contribute to Abu Dhabi’s Clean Energy Strategic Target 2035, which calls for 60% of electricity production to be generated by renewable and clean sources. 

Together with the existing UAE wind assets, the new project will increase the UAE’s wind generation capacity to approximately 240MW, laying the foundation for further wind energy expansion, according to Ewec’s Statement of Future Capacity Requirements report.

In October last year, Ewec and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) signed a power-purchase agreement for several wind power plants in Abu Dhabi and Fujairah, with a combined capacity of over 100MW.

Their locations and capacities are:

  • Sir Baniyas Island (Abu Dhabi): 45MW
  • Delma Island (Abu Dhabi): 27MW
  • Al-Sila Abu Dhabi: 27MW
  • Al-Halah (Fujairah): 4.5MW

Masdar developed the 103.5MW wind power projects, which use “the latest technology and innovation to capture low wind speeds at utility scale, adopting advances in material science and aerodynamics to make wind power possible in the country”.

The Al-Sila wind farm takes the total number of IPPs under various procurement stages in Abu Dhabi to six. The other schemes are:

  • Taweelah C combined-cycle gas turbine plant: 2,500MW
  • Madinat Zayed open-cycle gas turbine plant: 1,500MW
  • Al-Khazna solar IPP: 1,500MW
  • Al-Zarraf solar IPP: 1,500MW
  • Battery energy storage system (Bess) 1: 400MW

These IPPs have a total combined capacity of over 7,000MW. 

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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