10 Bidders Shortlisted For 100 MW Zambia Tender

• A total of 10 bidders have been selected in the pre-qualifying round for Zambia's 100 MW solar power tender
• Two qualifying consortiums include Globeleq African Holdings Ltd. based in London but operating in Africa along with South Africa's Aurora Power Solutions; and France's InnoVent and Zambian utility Copperbelt Energy
• Out of the shortlisted companies, three are from France and two from Italy
• Each of the qualifiers will now have to submit up to two proposals for up to 20 MW each

Zambia's Ministry of Energy has shortlisted a total of 10 bidders who will now compete for a 100 MW solar power project. The request for qualification (RFQ) round was launched in April 2018 as part of the Global Energy Transfer feed-in-tariff (GET FiT) scheme under the Zambian Renewable Energy FiT (REFiT) strategy (see Zambia Issues RFQ For 100 MW PV).

According to the ministry, 24 developers and investors from across the world submitted a total of 41 bids for the project. The 10 shortlisted companies were evaluated on a range of criteria by the Department of Energy and the GET FiT Secretariat led by Multiconsult as the tender agent. Final shortlisted bidders were approved by an independent investment committee of five regional experts.

The shortlisted companies/consortiums are:

• Italy's Building Energy S.P.A
• France's EDF Energies Nouvelles
• Italy's Enel Green Power S.P.A.
• France's Engie Afrique S.A.
• UK Based Globeleq African Holdings Ltd & South Africa's Aurora Power Solutions
• France's InnoVent SAS & Zambian utility Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc
• South Africa's Mulilo Group Holdings Proprietary Ltd
• UAE based Phanes Group
• Norway's Scatec Solar ASA
• US based SolarReserve Development Co

Each of these 10 qualifiers will be able to submit proposals for up to 2 projects of up to 20 MW each. It is expected that at least 5 projects will be selected for implementation. The ministry says at the time of the request for proposal (RfP) launch, the GET FiT's standardized project agreements are also expected to be released.

 "We are very pleased with the outcome of the RFQ process, having attracted significant interest and resulting in a shortlist of companies with extensive and reputable track-records globally and from Africa. We are confident that this provides the foundations for a competitive and successful RFP process which will ultimately provide clean and affordable power for the people of Zambia," said Jan Martin Witte, a director at Germany's KfW.

Incidentally, one of the qualifying companies for this tender, Enel is also developing a 34 MW solar power project in Zambia it won in the World Bank's Scaling Solar program round 1. It recently secured financing worth $34 million from a host of international agencies for this project.