Bahrain Electricity and Water Authority Relaunches International Tender for 100 MW-Class Bilaj Al Jazayer Solar PV Project

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On November 8, the Bahrain Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) reissued the international tender for the Bilaj Al Jazayer independent solar PV power project, planning to build a ground-mounted solar power plant with an AC-side installed capacity of no less than 100 MW in southern Bahrain. The project adopts a public-private partnership (PPP) and build-own-operate (BOO) model. The selected developer will be responsible for project financing, design, construction, and 25-year operation and maintenance, with a target commercial operation date of December 31, 2028.

This tender round is numbered 538/2026/BTB, and the procuring entity is the Planning and Research Department of the Bahrain Electricity and Water Authority, soliciting developers from the international market. The tender documents stipulate that bidders must first pass an initial capability review, which mainly assesses financial strength, limited-recourse project financing experience, and development track record of large-scale solar PV plants. Only enterprises meeting the minimum qualification requirements can enter the technical and commercial proposal evaluation. The project adopts a single-stage tender procedure, with a bid submission deadline of December 20, 2026, and bid opening on December 21.

The project construction scope includes solar PV power generation facilities, utility-scale inverters, on-site roads, and supporting infrastructure. The winning developer must assume full project cycle responsibilities, with work covering early-stage development, financing arrangements, design and procurement, construction, commercial operation, equipment maintenance, as well as facility dismantling and site restoration after the contract period ends. The project contract term is 25 years, the initial bid bond is BHD 300,000, and the tender document fee is BHD 3,000.

Prior to this relaunch, the Bahrain Electricity and Water Authority launched the first international tender for the project in October 2025. Bid records published by the Bahrain Tender Board show that Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power and the UAE's Yellow Door Energy participated in the previous round of competition, submitting bids of BHD 15.44 million and BHD 11.398 million respectively. After this tender relaunch, the project's target commercial operation date has been adjusted from September 30, 2027 in the previous round's documents to December 31, 2028.

The Bilaj Al Jazayer solar PV project is one of Bahrain's projects to expand renewable energy generation scale. Bahrain has set a target of achieving 20% renewable energy in its energy mix by 2035. With this tender round reopened, international developers with experience in large-scale solar PV plant development and project financing capabilities can participate in the competition, and the process will subsequently enter the qualification review, technical evaluation, and developer selection stages.