CSP World

Bidding proces for the Shagaya project has begun in Kuwait. The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research will award the constuction of a 50 MW Concentrated Solar Power plant.

37 applicants out of 107 have passed the pre-qualification process launched last September 2012, reportedly said Salem al-Hajraf, head of energy research at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research.

The proposed CSP plant is expected to be a 50 MW parabolic trough plant with thermal energy storage, located in the western part of Kuwait, which will enable Kuwait to asses the performance of this technology under local climate conditions. The Shagaya project also includes a PV and a Wind facility 10 MW each.

This is the first phase of an ambitious plan to generate 2 GW from renewables in 2030, the project supervisor said to AFP. The second and third phases will produce 930 MW and 1,000 MW, respectively, when the project is completed in 2030, he said.

The pioneer project will be built on a 100-square-kilometre (39-square-mile) area in Shagaya, a desert zone 100 km (62 miles) west of Kuwait City, near the borders with Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

According an AFP report, Hajraf said the target is for renewable energy sources to contribute up to 15 percent of Kuwait's total power production by 2030.

The official gave no details on the cost of the project but said the first phase will be financed by the government. The second and third phases will be offered to investors on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis for 25 years, during which the government pledges to buy all output.