During his recent visit to Tokyo Japan, the Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman stated that the Al-Ghat and Wa’ad Alshamal wind power projects have made Saudi Arabia set new world records for cutting the cost of generating electricity from wind energy.
“This great step would support the Kingdom’s plans to raise the share of renewable energy to 50 percent of the electricity mix by 2030,” he said in an interview during the signing of energy agreements on the sideline of the Saudi-Japan Vision 2030 Business Forum in Tokyo on Tuesday.
As part of the 4th round of the Saudi National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), which is being overseen by the Ministry of Energy, the Saudi Power Procurement Company sealed two deals with Japan’s MARUBENI Corporation for purchasing power from AlGhat Wind Project at 600MW and Wa’ad Alshamal Wind Project at 500MW.
The agreements were signed after the ministry opened the competitive bidding for each project. Both these companies set new world records for the total cost of electricity in wind energy projects. The new world record for cost of electricity production from wind power is 1.56558 cents/kWh for AlGhat and the second record-making project is the Wa’ad Alshamal at 6.59 cents/kWh.
