Construction of Saudi Arabia's largest wind farm half-completed

Construction of Saudi Arabia's largest wind farm half-completed

• The consortium led by EDF Renewables and Masdar is actively working on the realization of the large-scale wind farm project, with a capacity of 400 megawatts (MW), located in Dumat Al Jandal in Saudi Arabia.
• The site will begin producing electricity in 2021.
• The electricity produced by the wind farm will contribute to the country's energy transition and contribute to the fight against climate change in the Middle East.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 12, 2021 – His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia, HRH Prince Faisal bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, Prince of Al Jouf, Ludovic Pouille, Ambassador of France to Saudi Arabia, Ole Mosby, Ambassador of Denmark to Saudi Saudi Arabia, as well as Faisal Al Turki, President of Nesma, Bruno Bensasson, Executive Director of the EDF Group in charge of the Renewable Energy Sector, and Fawaz Al Muharrami, Executive Director responsible for Renewable Energy at Masdar, visited the construction site last Thursday. Dumat Al Jandal wind farm to celebrate the completion of half of the project.

The realization of this large-scale project, with a capacity of 400 MW and which constitutes the very first wind farm in Saudi Arabia and the most powerful in the Middle East, has been entrusted to a consortium led by EDF Renewables and Masdar, two world leaders in renewable energies.

The installation of the first wind turbines began in August 2020 on this site located 900 km north of Riyadh, in the Al Jouf region. The project will be completed in 2022. The park will have 99 wind turbines with a unit capacity of 4.2 MW. It should start producing electricity in a few weeks.

Once construction is complete, Dumat Al Jandal will produce electricity equivalent to the annual consumption of 70,000 Saudi homes, while the project will save 988,000 tonnes of CO2 every year, helping to meet anti-change targets climate that the country has set for itself.

As part of the National Renewable Energy Program set up by Saudi Arabia, the Minister of Energy awarded the Dumat Al Jandal wind farm contract in January 2019, worth $500 million, to the EDF Renewables-Masdar consortium, which had proposed the most competitive offer, namely $21.3 per megawatt/hour (MWh). When the financing was completed, the project showed a gain of 6.5 % on the levelized average total costs of the energy produced, at 19.9 dollars/MWh.

The Dumat Al Jandal wind farm will be operated under a 20-year power sales contract with the Saudi Power Procurement Company, a subsidiary of the company. Saudi Electricity Company (“SEC”).

Osama bin Abdulwahab Khawandanah, Managing Director of Saudi Power Procurement Company comments on this new step: “It is particularly satisfying to know that Masdar and EDF Renewables have successfully completed this key milestone in the construction of this 400 MW wind farm installed in Dumat Al-Jandal, which will begin to supply the Kingdom's electricity network in a few weeks. This project represents the very first large-scale wind farm in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) will purchase all of the electricity produced by these environmentally friendly facilities, under the terms of the long-term contract concluded for 20 years. I extend my most sincere congratulations to the managers of the companies responsible for this project, as well as to their teams, whose results I salute.”

Bruno Bensasson, Executive Director of the EDF Group in charge of the Renewable Energy Sector, adds: “It is an honor to contribute to the country’s energy transition by building the Dumat Al Jandal wind farm, the most powerful in the Middle East. We are grateful to the authorities and organizations implementing the National Renewable Energy Program for expressing their support. Now that half of the park is up and running, we are impatient to reach, with the help of our partners and subcontractors, the stage of commissioning the entire site, within a few month ".

Masdar Managing Director, Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, highlights: “Masdar is proud to have leveraged its experience in renewable energy to build the very first wind farm in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with our partners. Completing half of the project represents a significant milestone and we look forward to seeing further progress over the coming months. As an international player in the development of cost-effective wind energy, Masdar is committed to advancing renewable technologies in the region. This is why we will continue to be actively involved in serving the country's ambitious energy program. ".