Two companies have made offers for a contract to develop Bahrain’s first solar photovoltaic (PV) independent power project (IPP).

Bahrain’s Electricity & Water Authority (EWA) opened bids for the Bilaj Al-Jazayer solar IPP project on 12 March.

The bidders include Saudi Arabia’s Acwa, formerly Acwa Power, and UAE-headquartered Yellow Door Energy.

The 150 MWac Bilaj Al-Jazayer solar IPP project will be Bahrain’s first grid-connected solar PV power plant developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) framework on a build-own-operate basis. It will be delivered as a long-term concession and is intended to come online by 2027.

The proposed site covers more than 1 square kilometre, with the private sector responsible for end-to-end development, including financing, design, construction and operation.

Last August, EWA held a market consultation event during which it outlined plans for the country’s first solar PV IPP. The main contract was then tendered in October.

EWA said Yellow Door Energy’s proposal was “accepted with conditions”, but did not disclose further details.

The local KPMG Fakhro is the financial consultant, the US’ WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff is the technical consultant, and the UK’s Trowers & Hamlins is the legal consultant.

Bahrain’s clean energy targets, as set by its national plans, include 20% renewables by 2035, and net-zero emissions by 2060.

New discoveries

As a result of comprehensive interpretations of legacy geological data nd new, advanced seismic surveys, regional NOCs were able to announce discoveries of considerable unconventional resources in 2020.

The year also saw state energy players present noteworthy capital expenditure budgets towards the economic recovery of resources, particularly the production of gas, from existing and new tight and shale plays.

Saudi Arabia's unconventional programme has witnessed start-stop periods over decades, during which state energy giant Saudi Aramco had been working to determine the extent and economic potential of reserves available. The kingdom's unconventional campaign was flagged off in 2014, with Aramco awarding UK-based Wood Group a project management services deal, which was extended for two years in January 2020.

There are three areas Aramco has earmarked for commercial development: Turaif in the Northern Borders province and the giant Jafurah basin and South Ghawar, both of which are located in the Eastern Province.

In 2017, the first unconventional gas development project took shape in the north - extracting tight gas from the Turaif deposit to feed a new power station at the nearby Waad al-Shamal industrial city, and thereby solving the problem of the latter lacking a connection to Aramco's cross-country Master Gas System distribution network.