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Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, Masdar, has opened a new office in Saudi Arabia as it gets set to participate in the upcoming tender by the Saudi Power Procurement Co. (SPPC) for wind and solar projects.
This new office will support Masdar’s ongoing growth in the kingdom, the clean energy company, wholly-owned by Abu Dhabi's sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Co., said in a statement on Friday.
The SPPC’s Round 4 tender will be for three wind power plants with a combined capacity of 1.8 GW, and two solar parks totaling 1.5 GW, as part of the country’s National Renewable Energy Program.
Masdar's 400-megawatt (MW) Dumat Al Jandal Wind Farm, the first in the kingdom’s first and the largest in the Middle East, has begun producing electricity.
Masdar is also developing the 300-MW South Jeddah Noor Solar Photovoltaic Plant, through a consortium led by Masdar with EDF Renewables and Nesma Company as partners. The consortium signed a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with SPPC last year to design, finance, build and operate the plant, which will be located in Third Jeddah Industrial City, 50km south-east of Jeddah.
Saudi Arabia is planning to generate 50% of its electricity from clean sources by the end of this decade, targeting 58.7 GW coming from renewable sources.
The world's biggest oil exporter has also pledged to cut its carbon emissions to net zero by 2060, with plans to invest more than $180 billion to reach that goal.
(Writing by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)
