A joint bidding team led by Enfinity has won the first 10 MWe solar concession of the Dunhuang PV Project, which involves an investment of 200 million yuan (27 million euros), an annual power production of 16.37 million kWh, and a franchised operation term of 25 years.
In March 2009, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced an open tender to confirm the on-grid electricity price and technical solutions. A total of 13 enterprises including some major Chinese power concerns led the bidding, with tender prices ranging from 0.69 yuan/kWh (0.071 euro/kWh) to 1.9 yuan/kWh. The joint bidding team led by Enfinity won the project with the price of 1.09 yuan/kWh. CGNPC and LDK Solar are the other partners in the bid.
“The project is expected to start construction within 4 months and has to be completed within the following 18 months”, commented Gino Van Neer, founder of Enfinity. All PV systems will be PV tracker panels, installed on land.
NDRC of China also intend to set up a bench mark FIT (feed-in tariff) at the 1.09 yuan/kWh proposed by Enfinity.
Enfinity, as the only foreign player that participated in the tender, has now attracted a lot of attention in Asia. It is in the process of setting up the Dunhuang joint venture company and confirming the EPC contract, and expects to develop a total of 500 MWe of PV installations in the Dunhuang region in the near future. And in early July the company had its first self-developed project in Shizuishan (Ningxia province) approved by the provincial level government. The 10 MWe project is now ready to be submitted to NDRC for FIT approval.
