The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the state energy provider Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) hope to tender out the first stage of their massive 100-megawatt solar park programme by June of next year, according to an Asian Development Bank official who was speaking at a conference in Bangkok on Friday.

Pradeep Tharakan, senior energy specialist for the ADB, was quoted by Thai media as saying that a feasibility study would begin in January before the first stage of 30- to 50-megawatt capacity is tendered out.

An agreement for the project between the ADB and the EdC was first signed in June this year under a public-private partnership framework that could see the Asian Development Bank providing concessional loans for construction.