Al Anbar Governorate is planning to award two investment companies from the UAE a contract to build solar power plants with a total capacity of 150 MW in Iraq's largest province.

The province in cooperation with the ministry of electricity has prepared five sites to set up solar parks, deputy governor Jassim Abdullah has told Iraq's official newspaper Al-Sabaah.

The projects should be completed within a year or a year and a half after the formal signing of the contracts with the Emirati companies whose names were not disclosed.

Abdullah noted that work is underway to facilitate procedures for allocating land for the solar plants which will be pioneering for the province. These procedures may serve as a reference for other governorates to accelerate the implementation of such projects, according to Abdullah.

The planned solar plants should help the governorate bridge the shortage of electricity in the province.

The proposed project is the latest in a series of initiatives Iraq is undertaking to expand solar energy across the country.

Last week, Iraq's minister of electricity Adel Karim said that a 750-MW solar park would be set up in the southern Al-Muthanna Governorate to ensure enough power supply in the province.

This adds to three major solar projects with a combined capacity of 2.75 GW that were agreed last year.