The government-controlled utility is seeking advisers for a 200 megawatt concentrated solar power project, according to a tender announcement posted on the utility’s website.
Dubai Electricity & Water Authority will announce on Thursday the next phase in a 3,000 megawatt solar park that the Persian Gulf emirate plans to build by 2030, Chief Executive Officer Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer said.
Al Tayer declined to comment further on project details when asked by reporters Tuesday.
The sheikhdom, the second-largest in the United Arab Emirates, is seeking to expand renewable energy supply and boost efficiency to reduce its demand for imported natural gas, which currently fuels most of its power plants. The company already has a 13 megawatt solar facility operating at a desert site and is building another 200 megawatt facility expected to be complete in April 2017.
DEWA is still evaluating bids from power-plant developers to build the third phase of the desert solar park, Al Tayer said. The utility received a record-low 2.99 U.S. cent per kilowatt-hour bid at an 800 megawatt facility last month.
The first three phases of the planned 3,000 megawatt solar park use photovoltaic technology, which uses panels to transform the sun’s heat into electricity. The next segment would be the first to use concentrated solar power, which uses mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays, often to heat a liquid or produce steam used to generate power.
