The Water and Electricity Holding Company (Badeel) and ACWA Power have signed PPAs with the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) for the development and operation of three major new solar PV Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects in Saudi Arabia.
The solar plants are part of the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) which is led and supervised by the Ministry of Energy, with Badell’s owner PIF mandated to develop 70% of NREP’s target capacity.
The new projects will be jointly owned by Badeel and ACWA Power, a leading developer, investor, and operator of power generation, water desalination and green hydrogen plants worldwide.
These sites intend to produce a combined capacity of 4.55GWac of renewable energy, powering approximately 750,000 households.
The Ar Rass 2, Saad 2 and Al Kahfah projects have a capacity of approximately 2,000MWac, 1,125MWac and 1,425MWac of renewable power respectively, with a combined value of SAR12.2bn (US$3.25bn).
Financial close for these developments is expected by the third quarter of 2023.
The Ministry of Energy aims to achieve the goals of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 in reaching the optimal power generation energy mix by displacing liquid fuels through harnessing renewable energy sources.
The ministry aims to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix to around 50% by 2030 with the remainder of the energy mix being supplied through high efficiency gas-fueled power plants.