Chinese solar panel manufacturer LONGi has announced the completion of delivery of 406 megawatts (MW) of bifacial Hi-MO 5 modules to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea project.

The world’s largest energy storage project, which is currently under construction, will serve as an important reference for future smart energy projects, the company said in a press statement.

LONGi won a contract to supply its bifacial modules to SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Company in April 2022.

The giga tourism project’s initial energy demand of 210 MW under Phase 1 will be generated via solar panels and wind turbines, the Chinese firm had said in an earlier statement.

In February 2022, SEPCOIII was awarded the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the Red Sea multi-utility project by ACWA Power.

Red Sea Global (formerly The Red Sea Development Company) had appointed in November 2021 a consortium led by ACWA Power with SPIC Huanghe Hydropower Development Company and Saudi Tabreed Cooling Company, to design, build, operate and transfer The Red Sea project’s utilities infrastructure powered entirely by renewable energy.

The energy system has been designed to allow the development to remain completely off-grid and powered by a 340MW solar photovoltaic plant with an associated storage system utilising a battery energy storage system (BESS) plant for captive use, which at a design capacity of c.1200 MWh will, upon deployment, be one of the world’s largest utility-scale BESS systems.

(Writing by D Madhura; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)