AFP reported that Morocco awarded Saudi led consortium a USD1 billion contract to build 160 MW solar power plant the first in a series of vast solar energy projects planned in the North African kingdom.

A consortium made up of Saudi developer ACWA Power International and the Spanish firms ARIES and TSC beat off bids from three other groups, one of them led by Italian energy giant Enel.

The bids were evaluated on the basis of price per kilowatt per hour proposed by the competing firms with the ACWA group offering AED 1.60, some 27% less than the nearest bidder.

Mr Mustapha Bakkoury head of Morocco's solar energy agency MASEN said that the project would cost nearly USD 1 billion with work to begin at the end of 2012 and slated for completion in late 2014.

Source - AFP

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