Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power has submitted the lowest bid for Dubai’s planned 200MW concentrated solar power (CSP) project.

The Saudi developer submitted a bid of 9.45 $cents a kilowatt hour ($c/kWh) for the CSP scheme on 5 June, which was almost 11 per cent lower than the 10.588$c/kWh proposal submitted by Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, the second lowest bidder.

France’s Engie submitted the third lowest bid of 11.42$c/kWh, with the joint venture of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Fanar and China’s Suncan submitted the final bid of 17.35$c/kWh.

The 200MW fourth phase of Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum solar park is the first CSP project planned for the park, with CSP technology planned to produce 1GW of electricity by 2030.

In September 2016, Dewa awarded the advisory services contract for its latest solar power scheme to a consortium led by KMPG of the Netherlands.

KPMG will be the financial adviser, and will be supported by the UK’s Mott MacDonald as technical adviser and Ashurst, also of the UK, as legal adviser.

In March this year, Dewa inaugurated the 200MW photovoltaic (PV) second phase of its Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum solar park.

The 200MW photovoltaic (PV) plant, the largest completed PV plant in the Middle East, was officially opened on 20 March.

The 200MW facility was developed by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power, with Spain’s TSK providing EPC services and the US’ First Solar providing solar panels for the project.

The Acwa Power consortium was awarded the contract to develop the plant in January 2015. The developer had been initially selected as preferred bidder for the originally tendered 100MW second phase, but eventually signed a power purchase agreement with Dewa for a then world record tariff of 5.85 cents a kilowatt hour. The final agreed tariff was reduced to 5.61 cents a kilowatt hour.