Mauritius Invites Tenders for 140MW Solar Plus Storage

Island nation Mauritius’s Government is looking to expand its solar power capacity by 140MW. The Central Electricity Board (CEB) of Mauritius has issued two separate tenders for the development of 140MW of solar-plus-storage capacity. The authority has not specified the separate capacity of the storage systems in the two projects.

In the first tender, the Central Electricity Board will sign a long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for electricity from the 100 MW project. Bidders can apply until June 22, 2022.

The CEB will sign a separate PPA in the through the second tender also under which a 40MW solar plus storage project will be developed. The last date for submission of tenders is June 15, 2022.

Solar Run in Mauritius

In January, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and his Mauritius counterpart Pravind Kumar Jugnauth launched an 8MW solar PV farm in Mauritius. These will come up under India’s developmental support to the archipelago. A month ago from there, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) had invited bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) to develop the 8MW solar project Henrietta (Phase-II), Tamarind Falls, Mauritius .

The Mauritius Government looks to reduce its dependence on the fossil fuels. The country currently has total installed power capacity of less than 900 MW, with over 80% coming from fossil fuels.

BHL also sought supply of monocrystalline solar photovoltaic (PV) modules under the domestic content requirement category for the development of another 8MW solar power project in Ebene.

The renewable sources of energy make about 22 per cent by capacity of the energy mix of Mauritius. Now the Mauritius Government wants to increase the share of renewable energy in the energy basket to more than 35 per cent by 2025. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), at the end of 2020, the Indian Ocean island country had an installed solar power capacity of 83 MW.

The Mauritius government is also supporting distributed solar power generation through net metering and other rebates.