Interested companies have submitted their statements of qualifications (SOQs) to bid for the contract to develop and operate Abu Dhabi's fourth major solar photovoltaic (PV) independent power producer (IPP) project.

The planned Khazna solar IPP project, commonly referred to as PV4, will have a capacity of 1,500MW.

State utility Emirates Water & Electricity Company (Ewec) invited interested companies to submit their SOQs to bid for the contract in October last year.

According to industry sources, interested developers submitted their SOQs to Ewec on 5 December.

The solar PV IPP project will be located in Khazna, between Abu Dhabi and Al-Ain.  

MEED previously reported that Ewec's fourth solar IPP scheme is expected to reach commercial operations by 2027.

"The development of Ewec's new solar PV project aligns with the company’s strategic plan to build additional renewable energy plants that increase its total solar power generation capacity to 7.3GW by 2030," the firm said in September, when it issued the expression of interest request for the scheme.

Ewec refers to its first three utility-scale solar PV projects as PV1-3.

PV1, or Noor Abu Dhabi, has a capacity of 935MW and has been operational since 2019.

PV2, the 1,584MW Al-Dhafra solar IPP, was inaugurated in November last year. 

Ewec and its consultancy team are expected to award the contract to develop PV3, the 1,500MW Al-Ajban solar IPP, imminently.

PV3

Ewec qualified 19 companies to bid for the contract to develop the Al-Ajban solar PV IPP in September 2022. It issued the request for proposals to qualified developers in January 2023 and received proposals in June.

According to industry sources, the companies that submitted proposals for the contract are understood to include:

• EDF (France) / Korea Western Power Company (South Korea): 5.1921 fils a kilowatt hour (kWh)
• Marubeni Corporation (Japan): 5.3577 fils/kWh
• Jera (Japan) / Jinko Power (China): 5.40597 fils/kWh
• Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia): 6.14432 fils/kWh

When complete, the Al-Ajban solar IPP is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 160,000 homes across the UAE and reduce Abu Dhabi’s carbon dioxide emissions by more than 2.4 million metric tonnes a year.

Ewec aims to install 16GW of solar PV capacity by 2036, the firm’s executive director for strategy and planning, Bruce Smith, said in March last year.

The plan implies procuring about 1.5GW of capacity annually over the next 10 years.

Over the intervening period ending in 2030, Ewec envisages having an additional 5GW of solar capacity to reach a total solar installed capacity of 7.3GW by 2030.

UAE 2030 goal

The UAE published its updated national energy strategy in July last year, which included a plan to triple the nationwide renewable energy capacity to 19GW by 2030.

The total installed renewable energy capacity between Ewec and Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) sits at 5.5GW as of this month.