MEDIA

Echoes from the field

Seychelles Floating PV: Notice of Intended Award Issued!

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 13 December 2019: The Seychelles Energy Commission issued the Notice of Intended Award of Seychelles’ Marine Floating Solar PV project to Quadran (Seychelles) Ltd on Wednesday, 11 December 2019. Quadran is an international renewable energy company, operating in Africa, Europe, and Asia, and would establish a local company in Seychelles for operation of this project.

Seychelles – like many islands – has excellent solar PV potential but also has limited land availability for ground-mounted solar. Floating PV provides the opportunity to solve the challenge of land constraints and at the same time, the dependence on fossil fuel and the challenge of clean energy generation. Seychelles started looking at FPV back in 2015 and also possible sites for it.

The project is basically the installation of a 4 MW Floating grid connected solar PV plant located at the Lagoon at Providence. The lagoon at Providence was chosen as the site due to its accessibility, protection from open water and injection into the grid. This project is an IPP project and will be Africa’s first utility-scale FPV plant in a marine environment.

The Request for Proposals (RFP) was launched in May 2019 to a shortlist of eligible bidders that resulted from the first phase of the tender (Prequalification). Bidders then prepared technical and financial proposals, submitted by 13 September 2019. The Evaluation Committee - comprised of representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change (MEECC), the Seychelles Energy Commission (SEC), the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), the Seychelles Investment Board (SIB), the Ministry of Finance, Trade, and the Blue Economy (MoFTBE), and the Attorney General’s Office – completed evaluations of the technical and financial proposals, scoring the technical proposals before the financial bids were opened. A weighted scoring methodology combined the technical scores and financial scores determines the project award, with Quadran’s score leading to their status as the Best Evaluated Bidder.

The key transaction documents, the Power Purchase Agreement and Government Support Agreement are expected to be signed in 2020, with construction starting in Q2 2020.

By using FPV, Seychelles can maximize their solar PV potential and therefore rely on clean, renewable energy sources rather than imported fossil fuels. As mentioned before, FPV solves the twin challenges of land constraints and clean energy generation. Being a clean energy project, the project provides significant economic and fuel savings to the country.

The African Legal Support Facility as serving as the transaction and tender advisers supports the project.

“Without the support from the Facility, we probably would not have reached this stage where we are now. The support was very valuable and we are happy with the collaboration and we hope we can work on another one.” The Principal Secretary of Minister of Environment,Energy and Climate Change.

About ALSF
Created by the African Development Bank in 2010, the ALSF supports governments in negotiating complex commercial transactions, providing legal and technical assistance in public-private partnership projects across the oil and gas, mining and energy sectors, and covering sovereign debt issues and creditor litigation.

Contact us
Eve Ehoura, Communication Officer : e.ehoura@afdb.org