Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) will next month award a contract for the consultancy stage of the latest phase of its 3,000-megawatt solar park.
Waleed Salman, executive vice president of business development at Dewa, said that eight companies had been shortlisted and Dewa was in the final stages of evaluation. The winner of this stage will help Dewa to decide if it will award all of the remaining 800MW for the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar photovoltaic (PV) park in one single phase or separately into sections, such as two 200MW awards and one 300MW contract.
He did not disclose which companies were in the running for the consultancy work.
Once the consultancy firm is on board the utility will prepare the next stage including the request for bids, he said.
“We expect the request for bids by the end of the year, and we’ll give companies two to three months,” Mr Salman said. “So expect us to select the companies in the first half of next year.”
The plant’s total capacity will be just over 3,000MW upon completion, which is expected by 2030. This is enough electricity, on average, to power more than 1 million homes.
The first phase, awarded to the US firm First Solar, totalling 13MW, came online two years ago. The winner of the second bid round was announced in January, and with it, record-breaking low prices. The Saudi Arabian firm Acwa Power won the award for 200MW at a fixed tariff of 5.84 US cents per kilowatt-hour compared to previous market lows achieved in Brazil at 8 US cents per kWh.
This led to many saying that this was the new PV standard rate, which is at the same price – if not cheaper – than power generation via natural gas. “This solar tender is the new benchmark,” the UAE energy minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said last week.
The Acwa chief executive Paddy Padmanathan said that the market could change, such as from an increase in interest rates or construction costs. “It depends on when the tender comes up and the environment,” he said. “However, if all the conditions are the same [as today], the price will be even better than 5.84 cents.”
Separately, one solar company is looking to throw its hat into the ring for Dubai’s next tender.
“We see [the UAE] as one of the most important areas for solar,” said Andrew de Pass, the chief executive of Conergy, which has offices in Germany, the US and Singapore. The company has projects in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and it is also competing for awards in Jordan and Egypt.
Conergy raked in US$500 million in revenue last year and expects 20 to 30 per cent year-on-year growth with the Middle East market, making up 10 to 15 per cent of its revenue over the next three years.
And getting a leg up in the race for the work at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park would be helpful. Mr de Pass said he is currently in Dubai for discussions with potential partners for the next major tender.
“The next tender will probably be more disciplined as to what would be a more appropriate long-term return on investment,” said Mr de Pass. “Sometimes in the first tender, you want to build market share and awareness. If I were in [Acwa’s] shoes, I would have done the same thing.”
lgraves@thenational.ae
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
