Israel Ministry of Finance has published a list of the bidders that have been invited to the final phase of the PV tender launched in January 2020 for a 300 MW solar power plant in the Negev desert.
The list features 11 bidders in total and includes Israel PV company Ellomay Capital Ltd. in association with The Phoenix Insurance Company; a consortium comprising project contractor Allied Infrastructure Ltd and general contracting services provider OrmatSystems Ltd; Israeli solar developer Solegreen Ltd in partnership with Norway’s Scatec; Israel’s Shikun & Binui Energy Ltd; EDF Renewables Israel Ltd, which is the local subsidiary of French energy group EDF; Spanish solar company Solarpack in partnership with Israeli real estate investment trust Keystone REIT Ltd; Invenergy Israel LLC, the local unit of U.S.-based renewable energy company Invenergy; Energix Renewable Energies Ltd; a consortium formed by Shapir Civil & Marine Engineering Ltd and El-Mor Electric Installation and Services (1986) Ltd; Israel’s Noy Infrastructure & Energy Investment Fund together with Energy Investments, L.P.; and a group including Israeli insurance company Menora Mivtachim Energy Ltd and Chinese-Canadian solar panel manufacturer Canadian Solar Inc.
In February, the Israeli authorities revealed that 24 bidders had been initially invited to participating in the tender.
Once completed, the solar-plus-storage plant will be the largest PV facility in the country. Construction is slated to begin in late 2021, with completion scheduled for 2023. Israel’s largest operational PV plant is currently the 120 MW Zeélim solar park near the village of the same name in the south of the nation. That project, owned by Shne’or Zeelim, a Shikun & Binui Energy (SBE) subsidiary, and built by its unit Solel Boneh Ltd, in a joint venture with Belectric, was completed in October 2019.
