Saudi Arabia awards contract for $500mn Dumat Al Jandal project
Masdar has announced that its consortium with French group EDF Energies have been awarded the $500 million Dumat Al Jandal project, the first utility scale wind project in Saudi Arabia.
The Abu Dhabi based company said in a statement that the deal was awarded by the Renewables Energy Project Development Office (Repdo) of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources (MEIM). Repdo was said to have received four bids from companies across five countries for the project in Saudi’s Al Jouf region.
The 400MW wind project is the second tender to be issued by MEIM as part of the National Renewable Energy Programme under the King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative, which aims to diversify the Kingdom’s energy sector. This is the first commercial wind farm in Saudi Arabia and was awarded based on the levelized energy cost of $2.13 cents/kWh, which is a new record-low price for a project of this type across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The wind farm, once completed will generate sustainable power for up to 70,000 Saudi households and will create almost 1000 jobs during it construction and operation stage, the statement from Masdar said. The average annual generation from the wind plant is expected to be around 1.4 TWh.
The National Renewable Energy Programme is a strategic initiative under Vision 2030 and the King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative. The programme aims to maximise the potential of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia and is a significant step taken by the Kingdom towards creating a diversified power sector mix which puts renewable technologies at the forefront, the statement said.
