Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has decided to extend the deadline for bids for its solar power plant till the end of September, reported Middle East Business Intelligence.

Masdar, Abu Dhabi's $15 billion future energy initiative, is developing CSP plants in Abu Dhabi, and their flagship plant "Shams 1" is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Earlier this year, the company shared that it will release an invitation to build, own and operate a 100 MW CSP plant in Madinat Zayad, Abu Dhabi – the first of many CSP plants in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, which will feed power to the existing grids. The plant will use parabolic trough technology and is expected to be operational by the end of 2010.

It was in March this year when Spanish engineering group Sener and Masdar had formed a JV, Torresol Energy, to design, build and operate concentrating solar power plants in the world's sunbelt regions. This joint venture was scheduled to commence work on three solar power plants in Spain with an approximate combined value of €800 million, one of which will be a CSP Central Tower Receiver System. It was then shared that this technology will feature the first-ever commercial deployment of the industry-changing technology, and will set the standards for an anticipated 500 MW of CSP projects across the Sunbelt countries by 2012.