ADB-Backed Bhutanese Solar Project Seeks Bidders For Solar PV Plant

Through its Department of Renewable Energy, Bhutan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a 17.38 MW solar power plant that will be financed by an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan and is open to bidders from all eligible source countries of the bank.

The Sephu Solar PV Power Plant will be situated in the Wangdue Phodrang district of Bhutan’s Sephu region, which is distinguished by its mountainous topography and snowfall in the winter. The project’s broad scope of work includes facility design, acquisition, construction, and completion.

The ground-mounted grid-tied solar PV project must have a capacity of at least 10 MW AC, and eligible bidders must have developed, engineered, tested, commissioned, installed, and integrated it.

The Royal Government of Bhutan will use a loan that it has requested from the Asian Development Bank to cover the cost of the Renewable Energy for Climate Resilience Project to pay for the contract. The deadline for proposal submissions is September 19, 2022.

A $3 million grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) was authorised by the bank in November 2020 for Bhutan to promote the adoption of small-scale solar PV systems by underprivileged rural households. Additionally, the bank and the government were negotiating at the time to build a 30 MW solar power plant at Shingkhar in the Bumthang region and a 17 MW project in Sephu.

The Bhutanese government recently chose seven locations where they intend to build solar farms for $300 million. 

Additionally, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) wrote to industry bodies the Solar Power Developers Association (SPDA) and the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) to inform them of a new tender issued by the Bhutan Power Corporation (BPC).