Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has approved the award of the KD139.1m ($494.3m) contract to Spain’s Cobra to build the planned 50MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant for Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (Kisr).

Cobra submitted the fourth-lowest price for the tender when six groups submitted bids in November 2013. The joint venture of Spain’s TSK Electronica and the local Kharafi National had submitted the lowest bid of KD101.3m, and had been expected to win the deal.

The CSP plant will be located at Shagaya Renewable Energy Park, which is being developed by Kisr with assistance from the Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW).

Kisr has also received bids for two other renewable energy schemes at the Shagaya park, including a 10MW photovoltaic (PV) solar plant and a 10MW wind farm.

Two groups submitted bids in October for the wind power facility.The joint venture of TSK Electronica and Kharafi National submitted the low bid of $21m, $4m less than the $25m price submitted by the joint venture of Japan’s Toshiba Corporation and the local Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting.

For the PV solar plant, the TSK Electronica/Kharafi National joint venture again submitted the lowest price. Its bid of $19.8m was marginally lower than the $20.2m price submitted by a group featuring Spain’s Maetel.

Contractors are still waiting for the two schemes to be awarded.

The projects are part of Kisr’s plans to develop pilot schemes for solar and wind energy in Kuwait. In 2011, it recruited Germany’s Lahmeyer International to conduct a study to select the optimal renewable energy solutions for the country. Germany’s Fichtner prepared the masterplan for the Shagaya development and assisted Kisr and the MEW with the tendering process.

In an effort to tackle rising fuel costs and carbon emissions, Kuwait has set a target of providing 15 per cent of total power generation from alternative energy by 2030.

The country’s Partnerships Technical Bureau (PTB) has invited firms to prequalify for the contract to develop the Kabd Municipality solid waste project.

The waste-to-energy (WTE) scheme will be developed under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) procurement model. The proposed facility will be located in the Kabd area, about 25 kilometres from Kuwait City, and will occupy an area of about 500,000 square metres. The project is planned to have an initial capacity of 3,275 tonnes a day (t/d) and will treat up to half of Kuwait’s municipal waste.