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Saudi Arabia is getting a new 2 GW solar power plant: China Energy Engineering has signed a USD 972 mn contract to build a 2 GW solar power plant, Reuters reports, citing a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange earlier this week.
Details are scant: The plant will be built under a JV between a China Energy Engineering consortium and Saudi sovereign wealth fund the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Acwa Power, and Saudi Aramco Power Company. Construction is expected to take 31 months, according to the filing.
Chinese-Saudi investments are heating up: The agreement comes just weeks after officials from Saudi and China discussed increasing trade and investment between the two countries. PIF inked MoUs worth up to USD 50 bn with six major Chinese banks to boost investments in the kingdom earlier this month, and signed three separate agreements with major Chinese producers last month to localize the manufacturing of wind and solar power generation components worth USD 3 bn.
China Energy is already working in the region: Acwa Power signed an engineering, procurement and construction agreement with the company for its 400 MW solar energy project in Tashkent last year, and another agreement to co-develop Central Asia’s largest wind turbine. The Chinese firm also signed a framework agreement with Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone for its USD 6.75 bn green hydrogen plant which will generate 210k ton of green hydrogen annually. The company also inked an agreement with Morocco’s Gaia Energy and Saudi Arabia’s Ajlan & Bros to jointly build a green hydrogen production facility in Morocco back in 2023.
