Sign in
Ma’aden I solar plant enters the next phase of development: PIF-backed miner Ma’aden, US renewables tech manufacturer GlassPoint, and the Investment Ministry have kicked off the GlassPoint Ma’aden Technology Showcase (GMTS), a pilot project preceding full scale production at the USD 1.5 bn Ma’aden I solar plant, dubbed the world’s largest, according to a press release.
(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background and outside sources.)
More on the pilot: The project applies reflective mirrors in a glasshouse configuration to heat liquid salts that are then channeled to provide heat to a nearby Ma’aden plant. GMTS will begin by providing 1% of the steam required to power Ma’aden’s bauxite refinery at Ras Al Khair while leveraging new technologies to save on costs and weight.
The full project — Ma’aden Solar 1 — will provide up to 65% of the required steam for the refinery, offsetting some 600k tons of CO2 emissions a year, or the equivalent of taking 130k cars off the road. The plant is expected to have a 1.5 GWth output, mitigating 10% of Ma’aden’s annual emissions.
Not their first rodeo: GlassPoint signed an agreement with the Investment Ministry in October 2023 to build a solar tech manufacturing facility in the Eastern Province. At full production, the facility’s yearly output will enable the production of 5k tons of solar steam each day, or enough to offset 200k tons of emissions a year. The solar tech factory looks to provide supply chain resilience for Ma’aden I and other Saudi-based solar projects, while also supplying export markets.
