The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) said on 6th September that it has received 4 bids from international companies targeting a consultancy contract for the 900 MW 6th phase of the massive Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

“Since its launch, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park’s projects have received considerable interest from global developers, which reflects the confidence of investors from around the world in DEWA’s major projects in collaboration with the private sector using the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model,” commented Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA.

The names of the bidders were not disclosed. Presently, the solar park’s production capacity from photovoltaic (PV) panels amounts to 1,627 MW and work is underway on projects for an additional 1,233 MW from both PV and concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies. Just recently, EPC contractor Shanghai Electric (SSE: 601727) announced the completion of the 2nd portion of the 900-MW Phase V. The 3rd portion of that phase is currently at 23.06% completion.

According to Al Tayer, the current projects raise the share of clean energy production within Dubai's energy mix to 11.5% and this is seen to reach 14% by the end of 2022.

Overall, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is planned to hit 5,000 MW of total capacity by 2030.