Image: wantoii, flickr
Saudi Arabia‘s Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) has published the expressions of interest for the development and construction of seven additional solar PV IPP projects with a combined potential capacity of 1.515 GW.
The projects will have a power range of 20 MW to 600 MW, and will be located across several locations: the 50 MW Madinah Solar PV IPP to be located in the Al Madinah Province, approximately 26 km from Madinah city; the 45 MW Rafha Solar PV IPP planned for the Northern Borders province, approximately 16 km away from Rafha city; the 200 MW Qurayyat Solar PV IPP with a capacity of MW near Al Jawf Province, approximately 15 km away from Qurayyat city; the 600 MW Al Faisaliah Solar PV IPP in the Makkah Province, close to Jeddah city; the 300 MW Rabigh Solar PV IPP in the Makkah Province, also near Jeddah city; the 300 MW Jeddah Solar PV IPP to be located in the Makkah Province and approximately 50 km south-east of Jeddah city; and the 20 MW Mahd AlDahab Solar PV IPP in the Al Madinah Province, approximately 150 km southeast of Madinah.
The deadline to express intention to participate is Feb. 14, 2019.
The tender is part of the second round of the Saudi National Renewable Program (NREP), which in this year is expected to allocate around 2.2 GW of solar power.
This and the upcoming tenders were announced by the REPDO together with new renewable energy targets in early January. By 2030, the Saudi government intends to deploy 40 GW of solar and, overall, 58.7 GW of renewables.
So far, the REPDO has allocated around 700 MW of renewable energy capacity in the first round of the NREP, with solar having a share of 300 MW with the the Sakaka PV project.
This solar tender attracted a lot of attention worldwide as it was theater of the lowest bid for solar ever submitted, that of French energy giant EDF, which offered bid an LCOE of only 0.06697 SAR ($0.0178) per kWh. This offer, however, was rejected, and the winning bid was that of that of Saudi energy giant, which submitted an LCOE of 0.08872 SAR ($0.0236) per kWh.
Source: pv magazine
