The government will build a 40MW solar farm in Kampong Chhnang province, according to a Ministry of Mines and Energy senior official. Heng Chivoan
The government will build a 40MW solar farm in Kampong Chhnang province, according to a Ministry of Mines and Energy senior official.
Victor Jona, director general of the ministry’s General Department of Energy, told The Post that the ministry and development partners are preparing the bidding documents submitted for the solar tender.
“The 40MW solar power plant is initiated by Asian Development Bank [ADB], which will help prepare the bidding documents for us,” he said, adding that the project is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of this year.
He said an evaluation committee comprised of officials from the ministry and state-run electricity supplier Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) will review the bids from February 10.
Provincial Department of Mines and Energy director Ouk Ros told The Post on February 1 that his team was ready to participate in the development of the project.
With an environmental and social impact assessment nearing completion, he said he expects the project to begin construction in the second half of this year.
While no concrete location has been determined for the project, he pointed out that the ministry and EdC recently inspected a potential contender for the solar farm’s site.
“We will have a new solar power plant here, which will help supply electricity to localities in remote areas with a shortage of electricity,” Ros said.
Consistent with government policy, he said the solar farm would provide the rural poor with access to affordable electricity.
Meanwhile, World Bank-member International Finance Corporation (IFC) is mulling over a proposal to extend a financing package of up to $8 million to support another 60MW solar project in the province, developed by a special purpose vehicle named Prime Road Alternative (Cambodia) Co Ltd.
The 60MW project is part of a 100MW national solar park, which is structured as a public-private partnership.
With the 100ha solar project expected to cost around $41 million, IFC is proposing to invest up to $4 million from its own coffers and as much as $4 million will come from its capacity as implementing entity of the Canada Blended Climate Finance Programme (CBCFP), according to a disclosure.
An ADB press release released in September 2019 shows that the auction for the project, which was conducted by EdC, ended with Prime Road Alternative’s lowest bid of $0.3877 per kilowatt-hour.
And another 60MW solar power farm in the Kampong Chhnang’s Teuk Phos district was connected to the national grid in April, which brought the Kingdom’s total solar-power generation to 150MW, according to Jona.
The project, located in Taing Krasaing commune’s Romeas village, is developed by SchneiTec Renewable Co Ltd, a joint venture between Chinese and local partners.
