Proposed salt-water floating solar PV plant project at Le Rocher |30 April 2018

Potential bidders gather information

Over 40 representatives and owners of local and foreign firms keen to know more on the first salt-water floating solar photovoltaic plant project being proposed to be carried out by independent power producers, have followed an information session.

The aim of last Thursday’s session was to bring together all keen potential bidders, give them all the necessary information on the project, maximise local involvement, answer questions, provide clarifications and give the interested parties the opportunity to network and explore possible partnerships and visit the project site before they submit their bids.

Following the information session, tender for the project will be finalised before it is launched in a few weeks. It will close by the end of the year during which the selection process would be carried out and if everything goes according to plan, commissioning is expected during the first half of next year.

The tender process will be carried out by the Seychelles Energy Commission (Sec), with the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) as the eventual off-taker of the project. The tender process is supported by the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF), an organisation hosted by the African Development Bank and the Clinton Foundation. Trinity International and Multiconsult are serving as the transaction and tender advisors.

The most competitive and successful bidder will develop, finance, own and operate the 4MW (megawatt) floating grid-connected solar PV plant in the lagoon at Le Rocher. The tender and project will represent a path-breaking opportunity for the eventual successful bidder as it will be the first utility-scale saltwater floating solar PV project in all of Africa .

Former Environment, Energy and Climate Change Minister Didier Dogley welcomed the attendees before launching the information session to better inform all potential bidders, local and foreign, as well as stakeholders and partners who had turned out in reasonable numbers, a sign the project had generated great interest.

“The lagoon PV solar project is a very important one for us and it is the first of its kind being proposed here,” Minister Dogley told the eager audience. He went on to point out that we have remarkable lagoon space but not that much land space, thus the idea to use it to put up the floating solar PV project.

Minister Dogley said the project will also serve as a pilot one and if it works well, it will be replicated in other places not only on Mahe but on the other islands as well in an effort to decentralise the production of electricity.

Referring to the storm two weekends ago which damaged electric cables supplying La Digue, Minister Dogley said the incident hammered home as hard as never before, thus the urgency to decentralise power production.

“For us it is therefore urgent that we look at how we can produce more electricity from PV and build our resilience,” he added.

Seychelles Energy Commission chief executive Tony Imaduwa said the site for the project at Le Rocher was identified as ideal to accommodate the 4MW floating grid-connected solar PV plant as Seychelles does not have land enough for such a project.