Abu Dhabi clean energy firm Masdar, along with EDF Renewables and Nesma Company, has won a bid for the 1,100-megawatt (MW) Al Henakiyah solar power plant in Saudi Arabia.
The consortium led by Masdar, signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) to develop, build and operate the $1bn solar farm that will power more than 190,000 homes a year.
“Masdar is proud to have won the bid to develop the 1,100 MW Al Henakiyah Solar Plant, further strengthening our partnership with Saudi Arabia,” Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar said in statement.
“The kingdom is a key strategic market for Masdar, and we are committed to supporting the Ministry of Energy and the SPPC to achieve the targets set out under Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative, as the country accelerates its green transition toward net zero emissions by 2060,” said he.
“We are delighted to announce that Masdar and its partners, EDF Renewables & Nesma Renewable Energy, have signed a PPA with SPPC to develop over 1GW single-site solar power plant in SaudiArabia, Al Henakiyah, set to be one of the world’s largest, noted he.
The firm said that the Al Henakiyah solar power plant is expected to displace more than 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. It will reach financial close in early 2024 and connect to the grid in 2025.
“The SPPC awarded the consortium the project after it submitted the most cost-competitive bid of $16.84 per MW hour,” Masdar said in a statement.
The project is located in Saudi Arabia’s Al Madinah province, it is believed to help to achieve the target of increasing the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix to around 50 per cent by 2030.
It is set to be one of the world’s biggest single-site solar plants. It will be developed, built, owned and operated by the consortium as part of a 25-year agreement with the off-taker SPPC.
It should be noted that Masdar is targeting a renewable electricity capacity of at least 100 GW by 2030. The clean energy firm’s global footprint has expanded exponentially over the years, with new renewable energy projects currently under development in Europe, Africa, Central Asia, and the Americas.
The Abu Dhabi-based renewable firm agreed to co-invest in the 476 MW Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea in July. It also partnered with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority to invest $8bn for up to 10 gigawatts of renewable energy projects in the Southeast Asian country earlier in October.
