Saudi Arabia launches tender for 4.5 GW of wind and solar projects

Saudi Arabia has launched a tender to award 4.5 GW of renewal energy capacity --- mainly wind and solar projects --- across the desert kingdom.

The Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC), the authority responsible for tendering of the projects and offtaking of energy once the projects are developed, has issued a request for a qualification (RfQ) under the nation's National Renewable Energy Programme.

Five projects are being tendered, spread across four of the kingdom's provinces. These include:

• 1,500 MWac Dawadmi Wind IPP to be located in Riyadh province
• 1,400 MWac Najran Solar PV IPP to be located in Najran province
• 600 MWac Samtah Solar PV IPP to be located in Jizan province
• 600 MW Ad Darb Solar PV IPP to be located in Jizan province
• 400 MW As Sufun Solar PV IPP to be located in Hail province

Saudi Arabia's NREP aims to boost the share of renewable energy generation in the country. The kingdom is targeting a 50 percent contribution in RE generation in its power mix by 2030.

The SPPC has allocated 19 GW of renewable energy capacity so far, and plans to issue tenders for 20 GW of renewable generation capacity by year to achieve total renewable energy capacity of 100-130 GW by 2030.