The 41 solar power projects tendered by the Bangladesh Power Development Bank (BPDB) between December and January have failed to attract a single bid, forcing the state-run utility to repeatedly extend submission deadlines.
The solar plants, ranging in capacity from 10 MW to 100 MW, are expected to generate a combined 2.633 GW of electricity.
BPDB extended the bid deadline for its first tender, launched on Dec. 5, twice, while the deadlines for two other tenders, issued on Dec. 8 and Jan. 27, received their first extensions.
BPDB officials said bidders have purchased a significant number of documents for the first tender, but no proposals have been submitted. Document sales for the second and third tenders are ongoing, with submission deadlines now extended until April.
Golam Mortuza, director of Bangladeshi independent power producer Cell-1, told pv magazine that the BPDB relaxed many conditions following requests from potential investors at pre-bid meetings and could consider further revisions if necessary.
Still, investors view the projects as “not bankable” under current terms, citing the absence of government guarantees and difficulty securing financing. The BPDB has also set Bangladesh as the place of arbitration, which foreign developers and lenders reportedly find unacceptable.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.