Minister of Energy and Mineral resources Ibrahim Saif said Saturday that the ministry had embarked on procedures to sign memorandums of understanding with companies that qualified to submit bids in six renewable energy projects, at a combined capacity of 300 megawatts, as part of the third round of direct bids.

He said in a statement that the signing will enable qualified bidders to prepare their offers and submit them to the ministry within the set period according with the direct bid regulations.

The ministry announced last month a list of 30 companies that qualified for direct bids to invest in solar energy projects and 14 wind energy firms.

The bids were floated late last year to generate 300 megawatts from solar and wind power as part of the ministry’s strategy to raise to 20 per cent the renewable energy input in the Kingdom’s total energy mix by 2020.

The third phase includes six projects to generate electricity from solar energy in the Ma’an Development Area at a capacity of 200 megawatts and two 100 megawatt wind energy projects in other areas south of the Kingdom

Source: Fana News