ACWA Power has been awarded a US$302 million solar power development in Saudi Arabia which represents the first ever utility scale renewable energy project in the kingdom.
The Sakaka independent power producer (IPP) PV solar project is located across 600 hectares in Al Jouf and will generate 300MW of utility scale renewable energy upon completion.
ACWA were awarded the project at a new world record tariff of 2.3 cents per kWh, beating a bid from the Marubeni Corporation and consortium partners Khaled Ahmed Juffali Energy & Utilities Limited and Axia Power Holdings BV.
Paddy Padmanathan, president and CEO of ACWA said: “We are very excited to have won this project, through such a rigorous [and] transparent process, at a new world record tariff.
“It will set the foundation for a robust and competitive [renewable energy] market in the kingdom, thus enabling Saudi Arabia to take advantage of all intrinsic valuable ingredients available to become a global hub for research, development, manufacture, and investment in the rapidly [changing] energy sector.”
A timeline for the construction of the facility along with a first power production date have yet to be finalised.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia confirmed that construction work has also begun on $3.9 billion worth of development projects across the kingdom, including an airport near Souk Okaz City, an industrial city in the Makkah province and various road networks.
