As part of the Maia Taqa project, each of the three pilot field partners must implement two Resource Efficiency Services (RES) in their respective countries. Therefore, the project will launch six innovative RES on the market: a) Waste water treatment and reuse of treated water in Lebanon (by IRI); b) Solar cooling system and PV installation (integrated building) in Jordan (by by JOCC); and Micro grid and PV and storage in Egypt (from CEEBA).
For each pilot a call for proposals was published on the official website of the project, to which various companies responded, both from local country and other foreign countries. There has been a positive response from various parts of the world, the innovative services on the environment have attracted the attention of several companies that deal with the environment in various fields.
The Confederation of Egyptian European Business Associations (CEEBA), Egyptian project partner, has successfully awarded and signed a contract with OneraSystems for its MAIA-TAQA tender for the design, installation and commissioning of an on-grid PV solar plant of 100 kWp including battery storage in the Alexandrian pilot area, El Ameria wholesale market.
In this case 4 fully submitted tenders and conducting a candid scoring system, CEEBA (The Confederation of European Egyptian Business Associations) riceived 4 completed proposals and, after an assessment based on scoring system, was able to award the tender to the suitable and highly praised Egyptian company, OneraSystems, which had passed the administrative and technical evaluation checks, with which it successfully signed a contract for implemetnation of pilot.
The Jordan Chamber of Commerce "(JoCC) and MILLENNIUM ENERGY INDUSTRIES (MEI) have signed a contract to implement the Aqaba pilot project for the Aqaba Chamber of Commerce by installing a solar thermal cooling system at their site. In this case, the contracting company (MEI), a Jordanian company, will collaborate with the Sole Company, a Greek company.
In recent days, however, there has been a first step of evaluation of the proposals received by IRI (Industrial Research Institute) in Lebanon. The tender has not yet been awarded but both local and international companies have presented themselves, such as AQUATREAT, a Belgian company, and QINGDAO YIMEI ENVIRONMENT PROJECT CO., a Chinese company. Both deal with waste water treatment and reuse of treated water.
The involvement of sme is certainly an objective of the project and of the Program as a whole, an ambitious goal especially if conceived in a logic of cooperation and cross-over, therefore aiming at the involvement of companies from several countries, not only from the one where the call is launched. The results of the activities carried out and partecipation of SME in project calls testify that Maia Taqa managed to rise to the challenge. Probably the result would have been different and further positive in the absence of covid, as the pandemic has put large SMEs in difficulty and has discouraged investment in foreign countries.
And it's not over: in the case of the pilot project in Amman, in Jordan, the request for a proposal was launched at the beginning of August, so in the next week it will be possible to have the involvement of further companies in the realization of the Maia Taqa project.