The price bid by Masdar/FRV is 19% is lower than the second-lowest bid submitted by JinkoSolar. This bid is also 50% lower than Acwa Power’s winning bid in the previous phase II, submitted just 18 months ago. However, Dubai’s tender raises global expectations of the cost of solar to a level that cannot be quite matched elsewhere.
A recent bid of 3.6 cents/kWh by Enel Green Power in Mexico did not include the value of additional green energy certificates. Solar tariffs in the USA now regularly dip below 4 cents/kWh, but these include a 30% tax incentive and other subsidies. These bids demonstrate that large-scale solar power can now regularly beat fossil-fuel power plants on cost. The strongest contributor to the lower tariff is a lower capital expense, driven by lower component costs and more efficient system designs. The single-axis tracker technology allows to a gain of approximately 15% in energy production over fixed-tilt systems.
Financing of around a one billion dollars project will be held jointly by the developer (40%) and DEWA (60%).
Dubai launched the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in 2012. The park is located on 40 square kilometers of land south of Dubai city and is planned to eventually host 5 GW of solar projects. Read more at http://www.apricum-group.com
