A consortium of France’s EDF Renewables and Chinese solar-panel manufacturer JinkoSolar has been lined up to build the 2GW Al Dhafra PV project in Abu Dhabi after submitting the lowest bid at tender — a record-breaking $13.50/MWh.
That price is the lowest ever seen for a renewables project, beating the previous record of $16.44/MWh at a solar auction in Portugal last summer.
State-owned Abu Dhabi Power (ADP), which held the auction, will now enter into negotiations with EDF and Jinko on a power-purchase agreement, with first power from the project expected in the second quarter of 2022. If the two sides cannot agree a deal, ADP would turn to second-placed bidder, Saudi developer ACWA Power.
A total of five bids were received, including from France’s Engie, and joint bids from Japan’s Marubeni and French oil giant Total, and Italian oil company Eni with Japan's SoftBank.
The Al Dhafra project follows on the heels of the emirate’s first utility-scale solar array, the 1.2GW Abu Dhabi Noor, which supplies its power for $24.20/MWh — which had been a world-record low when the contract was awarded in 2017 to a joint venture between JinkoSolar and Japan's Marubeni.
Abu Dhabi is now planning to hold a tender for a second 2GW solar farm in the final quarter of this year.
“The water and electricity sector intends to play a critical role in meeting the target of having 50% of Abu Dhabi’s energy needs served from renewable and clean energy sources by 2030, as well as the reduction of the generation system’s average carbon intensity by more than 70%, compared to 2015,” said ADP chief executive Jasim Husain Thabet. “The Al Dhafra Solar PV project will play a critical role in delivering these ambitions.”
Othman Al Ali, chief executive of ADP subsidiary Emirates Water & Electricity Company, which announced the bids, added: “The cost-competitiveness of the bids received is truly remarkable — positioning Abu Dhabi as one of the world’s most attractive markets for solar energy development and reinforcing the economic benefits now achievable through renewable technologies. Securing such competitive tariffs on our energy projects is fundamental to support economic growth across all sectors in the UAE.”
