L&T Power Transmission & Distribution has been awarded the turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the 1.5GW Sudair Solar PV project. The project will take shape in the Riyadh Province over a 30.8sqkm area and is billed as the largest solar plant in the Kingdom.
The contract was awarded to L&T’s renewable arm by a consortium of Acwa Power and the Water and Electricity Holding Company (a subsidiary of the Public Investments Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF). The ambitions of Saudi Arabia’s National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) are on track. As part of the NREP, Sudair the solar PV project was awarded to PIF and its partner, Acwa Power, the statement from L&T explained.
This project is part of the 70% of target capacity of 58.7GW that the Kingdom assigned to PIF, while the Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) would undertake competitive tendering for the remaining 30%, as announced by the Ministry of Energy in 2019, the statement noted.
Commenting on the contract win, CEO and MD SN Subrahmanyan explained, “With several GWs of solar EPC experience, L&T has emerged as a global technology player for solar plants. L&T has been a provider of EPC services for several green projects in recent years. We are India’s largest EPC company to build hydel power plants, the largest market player to build nuclear power plants with a total capability of 9,360MWe, including some ongoing projects, on an EPC turnkey basis with the capacity to make important critical components like steam turbines, generators, end shields and other critical equipment.”
He added, “We have the largest market share of the Flue Gas Desulfurisation (FGD) units for fossil fuel power plants. L&T has over 2.1GW of Utility Scale Solar projects commissioned and are also operating and maintaining several of them. We have a diversified renewable portfolio of 32MW Floating Solar Power Plants, 135 MWH of Battery Energy Storage projects, 500 Micro Grids and 14,000 Solar Water Pumps. L&T is also working on potential solutions related to Green Hydrogen and Carbon Capture & Storage technologies. Securing this project is a major milestone in our clean and green energy path to fight the climate crisis that the world faces.”
Whole-time director and senior executive VP (Utilities) T. Madhava Das concluded, “Saudi Arabia aims to become a pioneer in Renewable Energy, and we are happy to be a part of this journey. We have been building efficient power transmission and distribution networks with modern substations and transmission lines in this region for more than two decades. This is yet another recognition of our capabilities to construct mega projects to speed and scale.”