The Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) of Saudi Arabia will launch tenders for seven large-scale solar power projects totaling 3.3 GW this year, according to a statement provided to pv magazine by Turki Mohammed Al Shehri, the director of the REPDO, with which he confirmed what was previously reported by Bloomberg.
In his statement, Al Shehri said that the official announcement for the 4.1 GW renewable energy plan for 2018, which will also include 800 MW of wind, will be made soon, without providing further details.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is targeting to deploy 9.5 GW of wind and solar capacity by 2023, is currently in the process of closing its first solar tender, whose final winner is expected to be announced by the end of this month.
Shortlisted bidders are local energy company ACWA Power, and a consortium formed by Japanese trading company Marubeni Corp., Khaled Ahmed Juffali Energy & Utilities Limited and Axia Power Holdings BV. The selected developer will have to build a 300 MW solar power plant under Round 1 of Saudi Arabia’s National Renewable Energy Program (NREP)
Under Round 1 of the NREP program, REPDO will support the development of 700 MW of renewable energy generation capacity, of which 400 MW will be for wind and 300 MW for the aforementioned solar project.