The Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia has announced that the Kingdom has achieved the most competitive price in the world in wind power generation. The price of implementing the project of “Dumat Al-Jandal” to generate wind power with a capacity of 400 MW has set a new world record for this type of projects at the financial closure, with electricity production cost of 1.99 cents / kWh!
The winning consortium for Dumat Al-Jandal project, which includes EDF Renewables and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), made the most competitive bid (2.13 cents / kWh) at the bidding stage in July 2018. It was the lowest price in the MENA region for wind energy projects at the time.
The consortium has announced the completion of financing the project of Dumat Al-Jandal wind power plant, with the support of a number of Saudi and international banks. The cost of the plant estimated at $ 500 million US. At the time of the financial closure in late July 2019, the project gained 6.5% profit on the cost of electricity production cost (LCOE), a world record price for wind power generation.
The project is expected to be operational by 2022. And it will provide 800 jobs in the construction stage with 150 more for operation and maintenance. The wind power plant will generate enough power to supply 70,000 Saudi homes.