42 companies bid
for solar energy farms

12 companies will be selected

The Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC) received 42 offers from the 256 companies that expressed their interest in the implementation of solar photovoltaic (PV) farms to generate 180 megawatts (MW) of electrical energy.

The deadline for submitting proposals was on October 30 and only 12 out of the 42 bids will be selected during a public session to pick the best offers delivered to the Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW). The winning offers are to be announced in two weeks by a special committee that was formed to evaluate the proposals.

Pierre Khoury, Chairman of the LCEC, said the number of interested bidders dropped dramatically due to the fact that each company is not allowed to invest in more than one farm. Each of these investors intended to submit for eight to ten farms, and this discouraging stipulation led many to withdraw from the bidding process.

Three farms will be constructed in each of the districts of Mount Lebanon, Bekaa and Hermel, South and Nabatieh, and the North and Akkar, and each investor can secure the land and generate close to 15 MW.

Khoury said the participating investors are mainly Lebanese but include other nationalities, as most of the offers are made by joint ventures between a local developer, a small to medium size enterprise, and a specialized foreign company. “The total number of farms across the country is 12, but the MoEW has the intention to increase them and will suggest this at the cabinet meeting,” he said.

This Public Private Partnership secures 180 MW in total for Electricité Du Liban (EDL), and boosts the production of electricity as part of the national strategy to reach an overall target of 12 percent of the country's electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Reported by Fouad Chehab