ILF Consulting Engineers has been awarded a consultancy contract in Saudi Arabia to carry out pre-development studies for three multi gigawatt solar photovoltaic IPV) parks, the German firm said in a press statement last week.

The combined capacity of three solar PV parks would be up to 30 gigawatts peak (GWp), making them the world’s largest renewable energy parks in terms of installed capacity, the statement said.

The pre-development studies, according to the statement, shall include:

·       Preliminary site assessment

·       Preparation of a master plan

·       Environmental baseline surveys

·       Environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA)

·       Permit application procedure

·       Various studies, including geotechnical, hydrological, glint/glare and corrosion studies

·       Energy yield assessment

·       Technology selection

·       CAPEX/OPEX estimation

·       Advanced design

“ILF will provide world-class engineering services, accompanying the parks’ development up to the point where the parks can be tendered on an independent power producer (IPP) basis,” the statement said.

Contract value and client details weren’t disclosed.

In November 2022, Zawya Projects had reported that currently, 13 new renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 11.4 GW are under development at an estimated investment of $9 billion (34 billion Saudi riyals).

Saudi Arabia is aiming to increase domestic generation capacity from renewable energy to 50 percent by 2030 under Vision 2030 strategy with sovereign fund PIF committed to develop 70 percent of the renewable energy capacity under the blue print.

(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Bhaskar Raj)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)