S Arabia preselects bidders for 1.2 GW solar photovoltaic tender
October 19 (Renewables Now) – Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry on Monday announced the names of shortlisted bidders in a tender to award 1,200 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity.
The competition is the third round of the country’s National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) and will allow submissions in two categories. The former covers the 80 MW solar projects at Layla and 120 MW at Wadi Al Dawasir, while the 300 MW projects at Saad and 700 MW at Ar Rass will be offered in the other category.
The lowest bid that was offered under the April 2020 RFP is SAR 55,626 ($ 14.83 / EUR 12.78) per MWh. It was offered for the Saad project.
Details on the shortlisted candidates in each category are available in the table.
| name of the project | Project capacity (MW) | Bidding consortium | Price (SAR / MWh) |
| Wadi Al Dawasir | 120 | International solar total | 70.01 |
| ACWA Power / SPIC / WEHC | 98.38 | ||
| Layla | 80 | ACWA Power / SPIC / WEHC | 111.89 |
| Alfanar / Asma Capital | 121.87 | ||
| Ar Rass | 700 | ACWA Power / SPIC / WEHC | 56.23 |
| Jinko power | 57.62 | ||
| Saad | 300 | Jinko power | 55.63 |
| Masdar / EDF / Nesma | 68.53 |
The winners of the tender will be awarded 25-year Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC). Each project will be developed in accordance with the country’s local content requirements.
Saudi Arabia launched NREP in 2017 to increase the share of renewables in its overall electricity mix. The first round of the program facilitated the installation of the 300 MW Sakaka solar farm and the 400 MW Dumat Al Jandal wind farm, which produced its first electricity in April. The Kingdom’s goal is to have 27.3 GW of renewable capacity by 2024 and 58.7 GW by 2030.
(SAR 1.0 = USD 0.267 / EUR 0.230)