Saudi Arabia has announced a shortlist of bidders for the first utility-scale solar plant planned for northern Saudi Arabia, according to reports.
The planned 300-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) project is in Sakaka, Al-Jouf province.
“All of the bids opened today (Tuesday) will now undergo stringent technical, financial and legal evaluation,” Turki al-Shehri, the head of the Energy Ministry’s Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) told Reuters. Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co (Masdar) and EDF Energies Nouvelles have submitted the lowest bid, according to a Reuters analysis.
Sakaka is located in Northern Saudi Arabia.
In October, The National reported that the Masdar-EDF Energies Nouvelles bid was the world’s lowest-ever bid for a solar project. “If successful, Masdar’s bid will break the 2-cent global threshold for the kingdom’s first commercial scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plant totaling 300 megawatt.”
The Sakaka solar power project is part of the kingdom’s first round of the National Renewable Energy Program.
The facility, which has to rely on a 30% quota of locally manufactured PV components, will sell power under a 25 year PPA to the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC), according to PV magazine.
