EWEC (Emirates Water and Electricity Company), a leading company in the integrated planning, purchasing, supply, and system despatch services of water and electricity across the UAE, invited developers and developer consortiums to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for the development of a new Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Independent Power Project (IPP) to be located in the Al Dhafra Region, in the Al Zarraf area in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
The Zarraf Solar PV project is a greenfield solar power project with a generation capacity of 1.5 gigawatts (GW) AC, and will be similar in scale and production capacity to Al Dhafra Solar PV, Al Ajban Solar PV, and Khazna Solar PV. Once fully operational, the project will generate enough electricity for approximately 160,000 homes across the UAE, reducing CO2 emissions by more than 2.4 million metric tonnes per year and raising EWEC’s total solar power capacity to approximately 7 GW (AC).
Zarraf Solar PV is EWEC’s fifth world-leading utility-scale solar PV project, supporting the acceleration of renewable and clean energy capacity in the UAE under EWEC’s strategic plan to build an average of 1.4GW of new solar PV capacity annually between 2027-2037. By 2030, EWEC forecasts that more than 50 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s electricity demand will be met from renewable and clean energy, and by 2035 60 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s total power demand will be met from renewable and clean energy sources.
The Zarraf Solar PV project will involve the development, financing, construction, operation, maintenance and ownership of the solar PV plant and associated infrastructure. The project will follow the independent power project programme of Abu Dhabi, where developers enter into a long-term power purchase agreement with EWEC as the sole procurer of electricity.
EWEC invites developers or developer consortiums to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) by the deadline of 22 October 2024, at 12:00 noon Gulf Standard Time (GST). Interested parties are requested to submit their EOI via electronic copy to: zarrafpv.project@ewec.ae.
Following a review of the EOIs, EWEC will issue the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to proceed to the next stage. The RFQ will provide additional details regarding the project, pre-qualification criteria and the bidding process. After the RFQ, the Request for Proposal to qualified bidders will be shared following regulatory approval of the project.