Myanmar’s 1 GW solar tender concludes with lowest bid of $0.0348/kWh

The country’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy allocated all tendered solar capacity in its first procurement exercise for large-scale PV. Final prices ranged from $0.0348 to $0.051 per kWh. China Machinery Engineering and Sungrow were the main winners, securing eight and nine projects, respectively.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MOEE) has concluded a 1 GW PV tender it launched in May by allocating all of the procured capacity. Final prices ranged from $0.0348/kWh to $0.051/kWh, according to a list of winning bidders, published by China Dialogue, a nonprofit organization.

The biggest winners were Chinese inverter maker Sungrow and China Machinery Engineering Corp. (CMEC), with nine and eight projects, respectively.

A consortium formed by China’s State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC) and local company Khaing Long Gems secured four projects. Two more consortia – including a group involving Chinese solar manufacturers Longi and GGL Systems – also won projects. The remaining two bidders, including groups led by German developer ib vogt and Myanmar’s Gold Energy, also secured projects.

“We can confirm that ib vogt has been selected as a winner for one of the projects in the Myanmar tender and we are currently in PPA negotiations with the utility,” a spokesperson from the company told pv magazine. “We are very pleased that our effort in putting out a competitive bid in a short timeframe was successful, despite the Covid-19 restrictions and the fact that this is the first project we develop in Myanmar.”

The selected developers are now expected to sign 15-year power purchase agreements within the next 150 days, according to China Dialogue.

Offgrid solar already plays a key role in Myanmar’s electrification strategy. A number of rooftop PV arrays and minigrid projects have already been developed in rural parts of the country. However, the utility-scale solar segment has also started to take off. According to the latest statistics from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Myanmar had cumulatively installed 88 MW of PV capacity by the end of 2019.

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