By BLOOMBERG

DUBAI • The world’s biggest photovoltaic solar plant is set to start operating by April 2019, an MD of China’s Jinko Solar Holding Co said.

The 1.2GW project in Abu Dhabi is “well on track and on schedule,” Mothana Qteishat, Jinko Solar’s MD for project development in the Middle East and North Africa, said at the Routes to China Summit organised by Bloomberg LP and sponsored by HSBC Holdings plc. The project is being developed by Jinko Solar and Japan’s Marubeni Corp, with each company holding a 20% share, he said.

Government-owned Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority received a then record-low bid of 2.42 cents a kilowatt-hour (kWh) for power from the planned facility. Prices for solar projects in the Middle East have set successive records with first Dubai and then Abu Dhabi coming in with all time low power pricing.

“What we have done will attract other Chinese investors” to the region, Qteishat said in an interview. There is room for solar power prices to fall even more, he said.

Saudi Arabia has received the world’s cheapest offer for supply of solar power. Electricite de France SA and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar made a joint bid to provide electricity for as little as 1.79 cents a kWh, the Saudi energy ministry said in October.

A combination of improving and less costly technology, free land earmarked for the plants, connections to national power grids and favourable financing have helped cut the costs.