MASDAR is evaluating bids from international companies who want to help build a 20-to-30-MW wind turbine facility, which the Abu Dhabi government-backed renewable energy company plans to start building this year.

Abu Dhabi is expanding its use of solar and wind power in an effort to become a regional hub for renewable energy.

Masdar also plans to build a 100-MW photovoltaic plant called Noor and intends to award construction contracts for the venture by the end of the year. It already operates a 10-MW facility of this type in Abu Dhabi while its Shams One solar plant – a $600-million, 100-MW concentrated solar thermal plant – is to be completed in 2012.

Shams One is a venture between Masdar, Abengoa and Total.

As a renewable energy power project developer, Masdar Power adds renewable energy to the electricity generation mix on a worldwide scale. The unit is also developing a 500-MW hydrogen-fired power plant in Abu Dhabi that uses advanced technologies to make hydrogen power commercially viable today.

Masdar City, a sustainable city, is due for completion in 2025. The project is still in its first phase, which includes the construction of buildings and infrastructure over a 100-hectare area and is due to complete in 2015.

A contract for the project’s first commercial structure, the courtyard building, is expected to be awarded this month. The contract for Masdar’s headquarters, which will also be home to the newly-formed International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), is currently out to tender.