NTPC Invites Bids For 900 MW Solar Park in Cuba

In it’s biggest international project till date, NTPC Ltd has invited bids from developers to build  the Solar PV park in Republic of Cuba. NTPC, a corporate partner of ISA International Solar Alliance (ISA) has been chosen as the preferred partner for implementation of 900 MW solar PV parks by Government of Cuba.

NTPC and Union Electrica de Cuba (UNE) would work in unison for the implementation of 900 MW solar PV parks in Cuba. The government of Cuba, through its Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM), has taken support of ISA for implementation of 900 MW solar PV parks spread in 175 locations across all 15 provinces of Cuba.

NTPC, under ISA Program-6, shall be supporting UNE and MINEM in this selection process, signing of project agreements and overseeing project implementation till commissioning.

This 900 MW project which is a part of the 2100 MW solar project implementation target of Cuba is aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The annual generation is expected to be 2400 MWhr per MW.

Cuba is a member country of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), a treaty-based organization for increased deployment of solar energy technologies having over 101 signatory countries of which 80 have ratified the framework MW solar PV project with developer selection through an international competitive process.

The Request for Qualification(RFQ) tender process will start from March 2022 till May 2022.

For Cuba, which has endured the world’s longest running embargo against any country, in the form of the US embargo since 1962, it will be an especially challenging task to build a solar park at a low enough cost, as US based, or any US resource will be unavailable for potential bidders. With the US virtually at Cuba’s doorstep, that is a big disadvantage to start with, besides the lack of any American firms in the fray of course.

India has of course extended support to Cuba earlier too for Solar Projects.