Quadran (Seychelles) Ltd. will be building a floating solar PV project with close to 4 MW capacity in the African country after it won a tender that was issued by the Seychelles Energy Commission in April 2018. The local subsidiary of Total Quadran won the project by offering the lowest winning bid of $0.095 per kWh. The commission has issued a 'notice of intended award' to the company, stated local media reports.
Supported by The Clinton Foundation and the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF), the floating solar project will come up in Lagoon le Rocher in Providence Lagoon on Mahe Island which Quadran will connect to the grid on completion. The output will be sold to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for 25 years under a power purchase agreement (PPA) to be signed soon.
To win this project, Quadran beat several established names that pre-qualified to send in proposals (see Seychelles Moves Ahead With 4 MW Floating PV Project).
Quadran is expected to launch construction on site sometime during Q2/2020. The plant will be Africa's first utility-scale marine floating PV project in saltwater environment. It will have ti deal with challenges of saline water, tidal fluctuations and water currents, the commission stated.
Singapore's Sunseap Group announced a 5 MW pilot offshore floating PV project along Straits of Johor in November 2018 calling it the world's first and largest sea water floating PV system (see 5 MW Offshore Floating PV Project In SE Asia).