For a 30 MW solar PV project in Saudi Arabia, France's Engie has secured a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the National Agricultural Development Co. (NADEC). With a validity of 25 years, the PPA seals a price of SAR 0.9 ($0.24) per kWh.
The project will be executed at NADEC city in Haradh where Engie will integrate the 30 MW facility with the former's current energy generation resources. NADEC says it will not seek external financing for the project as it does not require the company to incur any capital or operational expenditure on the project.
Engie plans to start construction on the plant on October 31, 2019 and targets the start of commercial operations on October 31, 2020. In a stock exchange filing with Tadawul, government backed food and beverages company NADEC said it expects financial savings from the reduction in fuel consumption to gradually start accruing from the state of operation of the plant.
With the solar power plant, NADEC hopes to reduce its fuel consumption to 124,000 barrels annually.
It took quite a while but Saudi Arabia has recently turned into a rather hot bed of activities for large-scale solar power plants. It invited proposals for 1.4 GW of PV capacity in July 2019. and in March 2019, REPDO announced 2.6 GW Al-Faisaliah Solar Project for Mecca (see Saudi Arabia Announces 2.6 GW Solar Project).