Saudi Arabia is intent on delivering the cheapest solar- and wind-generated electricity on the planet when it awards a tender for 700 megawatts of renewable power this fall.
The contract will be a first installment on a $30- to $50-billion plan to generate 9.5 gigawatts from renewable sources by 2023.
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“The terms on renewable contracts will be motivating so that the cost of generating power from these renewable sources will be the lowest in the world,” Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih told media Wednesday.
“These projects have a significant size,” he added. “They will be the largest in the region size-wise, and they are the first Saudi project that will be tendered through private-public partnership.”
Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter, and the highest-producing member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Bloomberg notes.
“Building more solar plants and developing a nuclear power industry is part of a broader government plan to diversify away from crude sales as the main source of income.”
