10:03 am - August 7, 2026
Dubai’s utility has opened bids for a 2,000MW solar phase paired with 8,400MWh of battery storage, with Acwa Power, Masdar and Etihad Water and Electricity in contention.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has opened bids for the seventh phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, MEED reported on 3 August. Technical and financial offers were opened last month, according to a source cited by the publication. The utility received bids on 1 July.
Phase seven adds 2,000MW of photovoltaic capacity and a 1,400MW battery energy storage system with six hours of duration, giving 8,400 megawatt-hours of storage. That pairing puts the phase among the largest solar-plus-storage schemes tendered anywhere. For Dubai, it turns a block of daytime solar output into power the grid can call on after sunset, when demand from cooling stays high.
Three developers are understood to have submitted offers: Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power, Etihad Water and Electricity (EtihadWE) of the UAE, and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar). A source told MEED the winner is likely to come from those three. France’s Electricite de France prequalified for the contract but did not bid.
DEWA completed prequalification for the phase in 2025. Some 47 firms responded to the expression of interest in March 2025, and the main tender went out last November. Others cleared to bid included China Machinery Engineering Corporation, China Construction Eighth Engineering Division, Power China, Larsen and Toubro of India, and Shanghai Electric Group. Deloitte leads the transaction advisory team as financial adviser, with CMS on legal and Sargent and Lundy on technical.
Construction on the 1,800MW sixth phase is close to finished, with commissioning expected by the end of the third quarter. DEWA and Masdar reached financial close on that $1.5bn project in 2024. Once it comes online, the solar park’s total production capacity rises to 4,660MW.
DEWA lifted the park’s 2030 installed capacity target by 45% in 2025, to 7,260MW from 5,000MW, backed by AED50bn ($13.6bn) of investment. Phase seven is the single largest step towards that figure. Its award will also give the regional market a fresh reference point for how six-hour storage is priced into a solar tariff, a number developers across the Gulf will study closely.
