The Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) has recently issued expression of interest (EoI) calling upon interested developers to submit their quotes to set up a 2-gigawatt solar power project in Abu Dhabi. The project shall be based only on solar PV technology and located at Al Dhafra, 50 kilometers from the city of Abu Dhabi.
The project will be developed, operated and maintained by a special purpose vehicle in which EWEC and other government authorities own a 60% stake while the winning developer(s) will own the balance 40% stake. This will be the second, and largest, solar power project undertaken by EWEC.
Abu Dhabi already has a 1.17-gigawatt solar power project under construction. The project was allocated to a joint venture of Marubeni and JinkoSolar at a record-low tariff of 2.42¢/kWh.
Ample availability of land, cheap debt funding, and direct government backing for these large-scale projects yields record-low tariff bids. Projects awarded in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are among the cheapest solar power projects in the world across different technologies.
Reference- Clean Technica