Kuwait is expected to issue a tender to build the estimated $1.2-billion Dibdibah solar power plant in the first quarter of 2018, a senior official said.

September 7 is the deadline for companies to express interest in the 1 gigawatt (GW) project, Shukri AbdulAziz Al Mahrous, deputy chief executive officer of planning and finance at Kuwait National Petroleum Company, said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek.

The 32-sq-km plant, which should be completed by the end of 2020 in Kuwait’s northwest, will save burning 5.2 million barrels of oil a year and reduce carbon emissions by 1.3 million tons annually, Al Mahrous said.

The project is part of the country’s plans to produce 15 per cent of power from renewable energy by 2030.

Kuwait consumes a maximum of 14 GW of electricity a day, usually in the summer when temperatures can top 50 deg C. It has a capacity of 17 GW of electricity.