Public opening of tenders for Solar Farm

A total of 18 tender proposals received for a 1.5 megawatt Solar Farm to be installed at Kawene, Efate, Vanuatu were opened at a public meeting Thursday afternoon at the offices of UNELCO’s Tagabe power station. One of the bids received was for extension of UNELCO’s rural electrification network around Efate.

The bids came from Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tahiti, Denmark, Germany, Laos and USA.

Of the 18 bids received, 13 were accepted because they complied with the requirements of the EU for tender submission and five offers were rejected for incomplete submissions because they were missing some of the required documents. The amounts involved in the bids received ranged from 2 million to 4 million Euros.

UNELCO called for proposals for the tender to supply and build the 1.5MWc power solar farm at Devil’s Point – Kawene — on Efaté Island, Vanuatu. The building site is located on a 5-hectare area close to the existing wind turbines farm.

The project titled Energy Facility 2 is co-financed by the European Union, the Government of Vanuatu and UNELCO, to extend UNELCO’s renewable energy network through solar power.

The team that carried out the public opening of the tenders consisted of the Chief Executive Officer of UNELCO – David Lefevre, Marlene Tom of the Office of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Jesse – Director of the Government’s Energy Unit, UNELCO’s legal officer — Jack White, Petit Frederic – Cofley Chief Executive Officer, and Tanguy Kerzhreo – UNELCO Product Manager.

UNELCO’s CEO Lefevre says the final result will be made with the winning offer or bid announced within the next two weeks because they want the solar farm to be commissioned in 2016. He says the final decision will be made following further study of the financial and technical aspects of the bids. Lefevre acknowledged the involvement of the Government in the opening of the tenders saying it is important for their partnership in the project.

Under an earlier project, Energy Facility 1, Unelco in partnership with the Government and the European union has established rural electricity at Sola and Mosina on Vanualava in Torba Province, Saratamata and Lolowai on Ambae in Penama Province and extension of electricity at northeast Malekula through use of both solar and coconut oil to produce power.