A consortium led by Indian power generating and utility company, India Power Corporation Ltd. (IPCL), has been selected to build Albania's first solar power plant with a capacity of 100 MW, reported Reuters. This solar plant will be developed for a total investment of €70 million ($79.3 million).
Other members of the consortium are Mining Resources FZE of the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong based Midami Ltd. The trio plans to bring the project online in 18 months and will sell clean power from for a total of €59.9 MW ($67.75) per MW for first 15 years of its operation out of the first 50 MW to the local distributor. Power from the other 50 MW will be sold at market price.
This consortium beat two other candidates as it offered the best combination of 'technical and financial credibility, price and additional capacity'. Referring to an announcement of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, Reuters stated that the ministry believes the price is 'lower than the €63 ($71.26) per MW in Greece and Turkey and also below the average import price'.
According to the report, now Albania and the group led by India Power will negotiate the contract. Outcome of this contract will encourage the ministry to hold similar auctions in other parts of the country.
The European nation had announced its first PV tender in August 2018, offering 50 MW capacity with an option to add another 20 MW to 50 MW capacity (see First PV Tender In Albania).
Relying on hydro power capacity for its electricity needs, the country aims to install 120 MW of solar and 70 MW of wind power capacity by 2020.