UAE-based Etihad Energy Services Company (Etihad ESCO), a unit of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has published on its Linkedin account the notice of request for proposal to select EPC contractors interested in deploying up to 60 MW of PV capacity across the emirate of Dubai.

Etihad ESCO said that it will be releasing over time specific projects that the bidders qualified under the tender will be entitled to participate in. These projects may be single sites or a portfolio of multiple sites.

Local state-owned Emirates News Agency has revealed that the tendered projects are for PV plants that Etihad ESCO will build on facilities located at DEWA’s water reservoirs. “The installation of solar PV systems on DEWA’s water reservoirs is another breakthrough, which drives us closer to achieving the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, that aims to provide 7% of Dubai’s total power output from clean energy by 2020, 25% by 2030 and 75% by 2050,” Etihad ESCO’s CEO Christos Mimikopoulos told the press agency.

DEWA is currently developing Dubai’s largest solar plant, the 1 GW Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, of which it owns a 51% interest. The project will be the world’s largest single-site solar park based on the Independent Power Producer model (IPP). The first phase of the project is a 13 MW PV plant completed by First Solar in late 2013, while work on phase III began in January 2016.

The third phase of the project, which consists of 800 MW solar capacity, is currently being developed by consortium led by French power utility EDF.