The Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) has signed a new power purchase agreement for a wind power project. The agreement is for the Yanbu wind Independent Power Plant. This project will have an installed capacity of 700 megawatts.
The Yanbu wind project is in the Al-Medina Al-Munawwarah region. The power deal was signed with a group led by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and Saudi Arabia’s Ajlan & Bros Holding.
The levelised cost of electricity for this project is set at 6.4 halalas for each kilowatt-hour. This equals about $1.72 per kWh. The project cost is more than 1.7 billion Saudi riyals. That is about $458 million.
The exact length of the new power purchase agreement was not shared. But SPPC signed two other similar deals in May 2024. One was for the 600 MW AlGhat wind project. The other was for the 500 MW Wa’ad Alshamal wind project. Both are under 25-year power deals and also led by Marubeni.
Saudi Arabia is adding more wind power to its energy plans. Wind power projects like Yanbu aim to add renewable energy to the national grid.
Besides big projects like Yanbu, there are smaller wind and solar drives in the country. Some small off-grid wind turbines are being tested in remote villages. These turbines are made to supply around 5 MW or less for farms and isolated households.
A few small hybrid stations have also come up. These combine wind with solar panels. One such pilot is near Tabuk. It connects small wind turbines with rooftop solar to run farm irrigation pumps. This type of mix helps in areas where power lines do not reach easily.
In Riyadh, there is an urban trial where small wind turbines are being installed on tall buildings. These are around 50 kW units. They add power directly for building lights or parking areas.
