ACWA Selected for 900 MW 5th Phase of MbRAM Solar Park

DEWA has picked a consortium led by ACWA Power as the preferred bidder for the 900 MW solar power plant in Dubai.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has picked a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power as the preferred bidder to build and operate a 900 MW solar power plant in Dubai.

ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corporation have won the tender for the fifth phase of the 5,000-MW Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (MbRAM) Solar Park with a record-low bid of USD 0.016953 per kWh, or USD 16.95 per MWh. DEWA said it got 60 responses against its Requests for Qualifications (RFQ) for the 900 MW fifth phase of the project, after launching the tender in February 2019.

“The project documents, Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), and financial close agreements will be signed in due course,” commented Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of DEWA.

While this latest phase of the project will use photovoltaics (PV), the larger complex will also include a concentrated solar power (CSP) component.

The new 900-MW portion will increase the complex’s total capacity to 2,863 MW, as 713 MW are already operational and DEWA is building a further 1,250 MW as part of three separate projects.

The entire solar power complex is expected to be built by 2030 at a total cost of AED 50 billion (USD 13.6 billion/ EUR 12.3 billion). The fifth phase alone is seen to become operational in stages, starting in the second quarter of 2021. The move supports the objectives of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to provide 75 percent of Dubai’s total power output from clean energy by 2050.

In March, we had reported that DEWA and the consortium led by ACWA Power and Silk Road Fund, which is owned by the Chinese Government, had announced the financial closing of the 950 MW fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (MbRAM) Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world.