Negev solar energy tender excludes local firms

Israeli companies cannot meet the threshold requirements..

14 April 08 10:58, Lior Baron and Merav Ankori

There has been increasing criticism in the energy economy over the terms of the tender for the building of the Ashelim solar power plant in the Negev. Sources inform ''Globes'' that the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Infrastructures have been embarrassed by revelations that the leading Israeli companies in the sector, Solel Solar Systems Ltd. and Luz II Ltd., do not meet the threshold requirements for the tender.

It has also been revealed that the professional advisers to the tender are set to meet at the end of this week to discuss the grievances that some bidders have raised about the threshold requirements.

The government has published a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) tender for the funding, building and operation of two solar power plants at the Ashelim site in the Negev, using thermo-solar technology, with a capacity of 80-125 megawatts each. The investment in the project is estimated at $600-650 million. Israeli companies will, in effect, be unable to bid in the tender without teaming up with international partners unless the current threshold requirements are changed.

Sources close to the tender said the government was aware of the problematic nature of some of the tender's threshold requirements and that these were currently under review. The main problems are the request that bidders have experience in building and operating conventional power plants and the financial strength conditions.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 14, 2008

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