16 companies bid for KSA mega solar projects
The projects are being implemented under the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) which is led and supervised by the Ministry of Energy
Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) has announced that a total of 16 utility project developers have now been pre-qualified for the sixth round of solar projects coming up across the Kingdom. These will provide an overall power capacity of 3,000MW.
The projects are being implemented under the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) which is led and supervised by the Ministry of Energy. The Round 6 solar projects comprise the 1400MWac capacity Najran Solar IPP and 600MWac Darab Solar PV IPP in the Southern Province, as well as 600MWac Samtah Solar PV IPP and 400MWac Sufun Solar PV IPP in the Central Province.
The list of the pre-qualified bidders includes global players such as French utility majors EDF Renouvelables and Total Energies; Japanese heavyweights Marubeni, Sumitomo and Jera, as well as Korean groups Kepco and Korea Western Power. This is in addition to Chinese utility majors Spic Huanghe Hydropower and Jinko Power (Hong Kong) and leading Singaporean energy and urban solutions provider, Sembcorp Utilities.
The 3,000MW solar projects also saw several Saudi groups bidding, both on their own and in consortium with global firms. Among those now pre-qualified by SPPC, the major names are Nesma Renewable Energy; Al Jomaih Energy & Water and Al Gihaz Holding Company; as well as Alfanar Company in consortium with PowerChina and FAS Energy, with Saudi Electricity Company.
UAE-based Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar); Kahrabel, the regional unit of French utility major Engie (in consortium with Korean group Posco International) are also in the race.
