Kuwait’s national oil company has listed a tender for the construction of its planned Dabdaba solar energy project, part of the country's plans to produce 15% of its power needs from renewable sources.

The limited tender by the state-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), as found on the country’s Central Agency for Public Tenders, is for the supply, construction, operation, and maintenance of the 1.5GW Dabdaba solar energy project.

The tender closes on 16 December, 2018, with a preliminary meeting set for 10 October, the day before the first preparatory meeting that will take place at 8am on 11 October at KNPC’s main building in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait.

A second preparatory meeting is set for 14 November, with a third set for the day after – both at KNPC’s Ahmadi building, according to the tender filing.

In July this year, KNPC said, according to a Thomson Reuters report, that the Dabdaba project “has an operation and maintenance period of 25 years”, adding work on the scheme is scheduled to start in early 2019.

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The project is in line with the country’s push towards a renewable energy future as it looks to produce 15% of its energy needs from renewable sources, mirroring a wider desire by oil-dependent Middle Eastern economies to diversify their growth prospects.