Saudi Arabia

The Saudi energy company submitted the second lowest bid, an LCOE of 0.08872 SAR ($0.0236) per kWh, while the excluded competitor, a consortium led by Japan’s Marubeni, had offered 0.09976 SAR ($0.0266) per kWh.

The launch of the series of tenders was confirmed to pv magazine by Turki Mohammed Al Shehri, the head of the Saudi Renewable Energy Project Development Office.

The Saudi energy company said it will be the world’s first utility-scale generator joining the SolarCoin ecosystem, and that it will be “rewarded for helping build a more sustainable future.”

Shortlisted bidders are Saudi energy company, ACWA and Japanese trading company, Marubeni, which submitted the second and third lowest bids, respectively. The lowest bid, which was proposed by consortium formed by UAE-based Masdar and French energy giant, EDF and could have become the world’s cheapest offer for solar energy, was excluded from the auction.

The Saudi Electricity Company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Public Investment Fund and Softbank Vision Fund to create 3 GW of solar and storage capacity in the Kingdom in 2018.

The recent Saudi Arabian tender for 300 MW of solar PV saw a bid of $0.0178/kWh – the lowest price by far yet seen globally. Aymen Grira of French energy consultancy Altran discusses this bid, and explores the wider PV potential of the MENA region.

A consortium formed by UAE-based Masdar and French energy giant EDF has offered to deploy all the tendered capacity at a LCOE of 0.06697 SAR ($0.0178) per kWh. In addition, seven of the eight bids were under $0.03 per kWh. The tender’s bidders will be announced by the end of January 2018.

The Middle Eastern country has so far mainly supported large-scale projects. The new rules, which will apply to projects not exceeding 1 MW, will come into force in mid-2018.

The Saudi Renewable Energy Development Office (REPDO) has announced a shortlist of 27 companies that will be invited to submit proposals for 300 MW of solar PV commissioned as part of the first round of Saudi Arabia’s National Renewable Energy Program (NREP).

The Toyota Prius gets rooftop solar, Fraunhofer and Hevel push multicrystalline and HJT efficiencies, Saudi Arabia begins 300 MW tender process and Tesla publishes its Q4 2016 financials – welcome to the week that was.