The Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen) has set a new bid deadline of 21 September for the planned Noor Midelt solar project, which will consist of two hybrid-solar plants each with a capacity of 400MW.

MEED reported in January that Masen had requested technical clarifications from the three bidders for the Noor Midelt scheme after the groups had submitted proposals for the project, which will hybrid concentrated solar power (CSP)/photovoltaic (PV) plants, on 12 December.

The client had initially set a deadline of 31 July for commercial proposals, but has now pushed this back to September to give bidders more time to work on submissions.

The three bidders for the solar project are: Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia), EDF (France) and Engie (France).

The two 400MW plants are expected to consist of two separate plants with a CSP capacity of 150-190MW, and a minimum of 5 hours of thermal storage. The capacity of the PV component, for daytime generation, will be left to the bidders’ discretion, but it will not be allowed to exceed night time capacity from CSP by more than 20 per cent.

The Noor Midelt complex will be located on 3,150 hectares of land, 20 kilometres north of the town of Midelt in northern Morocco. The hybrid scheme will be developed as an IPP using a BOOT concession under a long-term power purchase agtreement (PPA) between Masen and the project company.

As with Morocco’s other solar IPP schemes, Masen will buy the electricity at the price offered by the successful bidder and sell it to the National Office of Electricity & Water (ONEE) through a second PPA between Masen and the utility. Masen will provide the site infrastructure, including roads, water and power.