Jeddah-based manufacturer Desert Technologies has agreed to develop the facilities in partnership with Modon, the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technological Zones.
Desert Technologies plans to invest about SAR 750 million (approximately $200 million) on 170,000 square metres of land located in Jeddah’s Third Industrial City on the west coast of Saudi Arabia.
The facility will feature lines dedicated to producing 2 GW of solar panels and 3 GW of solar cells annually in order to meet increasing local demand for solar energy components and equipment.
This deal is the latest in a series of projects announced in recently that will localize manufacturing technologies related to Saudi Arabia’s green energy expansion. The projects include the construction of manufacturing facilities for solar panels, wind turbines and battery energy storage systems (BESS).
In July PV Tech reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund signed agreements with two Chinese solar manufacturers that could result in 30GW of domestic manufacturing capacity built in the country, from ingots to modules. The first agreement is with Lumetech, a subsidiary of Chinese solar manufacturer TCL Zhonghuan Renewable Energy, which aims to build an ingot and wafer plant with an annual nameplate capacity of 20GW. The second agreement is with Chinese solar manufacturer JinkoSolar to bring 10GW of annual nameplate capacity of n-type solar cells and modules.
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