Saudi to invite bids for renewable projects in April

Saudi Arabia’s minister of energy, industry and mineral resources Khalid Al-Falih has announced that the country will invite international and domestic firms to bid for renewable energy projects in April.

At a news conference in Riyadh yesterday, Al-Falih said contracts for the projects, including two new solar and wind power plants with a 700MW capacity, would likely be awarded in September, according to Saudi Gazette.

His comments followed an announcement last month that the kingdom would launch a renewable energy programme involving investment of between $30bn and $50bn by 2023.

Read: Saudi to soon launch $30-50bn renewable energy programme

Al-Falih said at the time that the first round of bidding would involve projects that would produce 10GW of power.

Currently the kingdom produces less than 1 per cent of its total power via renewable sources.

It is targeting a contribution of 3,450MW of energy from renewable sources, representing 4 per cent of energy demand in the kingdom, by 2020.

Other plans include two nuclear reactors with a total capacity of 2.8GW. The country is in the engineering and design stage for the plants he told reporters.