The Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) of Saudi Arabia has announced the pre-qualified bidders for the third round of the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) that was launched in January 2020 and offered four solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 1.2 GW. The solar project includes the 700 MW Ar Rass, 300 MW Saad, 120 MW Wadi Al Dawaser and 80 MW Layla solar PV projects. The selected projects must contain at least 17% local content and two smaller projects are targeted for smaller companies. REPDO has shortlisted 49 bidders, including Saudi Arabian project developer ACWA Power, Masdar (United Arab Emirates), First Solar (United States), TNB (Malaysia), Jinko Solar (China), Acciona (Spain), EDF (France), KEPCO (South Korea) and Marubeni (Japan).
In the first round of renewable procurement, REPDO awarded the 300 MW Sakaka solar project to ACWA Power (now producing electricity). In January 2019, the REPDO launched this second round, seeking Expressions of Interest (EOIs) for seven solar PV with a combined capacity of 1.5 GW and requiring around US$1.5bn in investments. The solar PV projects included 600 MW Alfaisaliah, 300 MW Rabigh, 300 MW Jeddah, 200 MW Qurrayat, 50 MW Madinah, 45 MW Rafha, and 20 MW Mahad Duhab.
Saudi Arabia aims to reach 27.3 GW of renewable power capacity by 2024, and 58.7 GW by 2030, of which 40 GW will come from solar and 16 GW from onshore wind.
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