Abu Dhabi Future Energy company (Masdar) plans to award the contract for the construction of the Shams 1 solar power plant in the first quarter of this year, according to a company spokesman.

Masdar selected a team of Spain’s Abengoa Solar and France’s Total as the preferred bidder on the scheme in the first quarter of last year. However, it subsequently decided to relocate the project from the planned site at Madinat Zayed, in the west of the emirate.

In September 2009, MEED reported that the client had shortlisted five sites for the project and was due to make a final selection by the end of the year. It was unclear at the time whether Masdar would then retender the project.

The concentrating solar power plant will have capacity of 100MW.