Bids shortlisted for Tarfaya wind power project

Sixteen companies and consortia from a variety of countries have made it through the first pre-qualification round of the tender process held by Morocco's state utility, Office National de l'Electricité (ONE), to develop, build and operate a 200-300 MW wind power plant at Tarfaya, south of Essaouira on Morocco's windy Atlantic coast. The terms of the project, which will be undertaken as a build, operate, transfer enterprise, require turbines of at least 850 kW and a completion date of 2010. The companies selected to present bids are Australian-quoted wind investment company Babcock & Brown; utility Endesa (just bought by Acciona), Gamesa, Iberdrola and Union Fenosa of Spain; Italy's Falck SpA; Japan's Mitsui; France-based Suez Energy International; Britain's International Power and IVPC International Ltd, a company with roots as a major developer in the Italian wind power business but which is now registered in Ireland. The consortia are: Poweo with Gas Natural, Théolia with GE Energy Financial Services and Tourelec and Total with EDF Energies Nouvelles, all based in France; Siemens with ProCME; Spain's Urbaser with France's La Compagnie du Vent; and America's CMS Generation with Taqa from Abu Dhabi and Dutch firm E-Connection.