Office National de l'Electricite (ONE) has relaunched the kingdom's first solar/thermal power plant in the northeast city of Ain Beni Mathar and invited companies to apply for prequalification by 28 July for the project's procurement and construction and operation and maintenance work.
The combined cycle plant, which will be fed by natural gas from the Maghreb-Europe pipeline, is planned to have capacity of 200-250 MW. This amount includes 30 MW from the solar-powered element generated by a field of cylindrical parabolic mirrors covering a total area of 220,000 square metres.
Financing for the plant will include a $50 million grant from the Global Environment Fund, which is jointly managed by the World Bank, the UN Development Programme and the UN Environment Programme. The African Development Bank has also extended a loan, the value of which is undisclosed.
The power station was originally planned to be developed as an independent power project (IPP) and ONE first requested expressions of interest for the project in 2002. However, ONE found it difficult to attract investors to the IPP. As a result the project fell behind schedule and was eventually postponed before ONE decided it would be relaunched on a non-private basis. Germany's Fichtneris the project consultant (MEED 10:5:02).
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