Sakaka Solar Power Plant

Sakaka Solar Power Plant or Sakaka PV Power Plant is the first utility-scale renewable photovoltaic energy plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, laid its foundation stone in 2018. The project was launched in 2021 under the patronage of Crown Prince, Prime Minister, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Energy Mix Affairs for Electricity Production and Enabling Renewable Energy Sector, His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz. Moreover, the Minister of Energy, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz, inaugurated the project, which initiated renewable energy projects in the Kingdom.

The project, which is part of the King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative, aims to sustainably increase the share of renewable energy in the total energy sources used in electricity generation across the Kingdom. It employs photovoltaic technology on an area of about six km.

The Sakaka project is expected to constitute a qualitative and quantitative shift in renewable energy across the Kingdom. It is being implemented in phases, with a production capacity of 300 MW, with a standard tariff of 8.78 kWh, sufficient to supply more than forty-five thousand homes with electric energy.

Al-Jawf Province is home to a large number of the project's facilities, which cover an area of up to six km. It consists of a photovoltaic power plant with solar PV modules mounted on frames that are connected to inverter substations, a grid tie with a medium voltage/high voltage (MV/HV) substation, and a high-voltage overhead line that connects the substation to the electric transmission system owned by the Saudi Electricity Company.

The Saudi Electricity Company receives its energy from the Sakaka Solar Photovoltaic Project. The first twenty-five-year power purchase deal was signed with ACWA Power by the Saudi Power Procurement Company, which was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Saudi Electricity Company.

Sakaka station initiated its activities in 2019 and began operating in mid-December of that year. It supplied the Kingdom with a significant amount of electricity, as it is the first large-scale renewable energy station in the national grid.

Solar panels at the Sakaka station, which extends over an area of up to six km². (Saudi Vision 2030 Media Center)

Through the initiation and management of the Sakaka station project, designed to generate electricity from solar energy, the Kingdom reaffirmed its commitment to harnessing renewable energy. This endeavor, coupled with various other ongoing projects throughout the Kingdom, constitutes vital components of the plans to achieve an optimal energy mix for electricity generation. The ultimate goal is to have approximately 50 percent of this mix comprise gas and renewable energy sources by the year 2030. This strategic shift towards gas and renewables will supplant around one million barrels of oil equivalent in liquid fuel consumption per day, which is currently utilized in electricity generation, water desalination, and various other sectors.

The Sakaka PV Power Plant Project reflects the role of the private sector in developing infrastructure projects in the Kingdom. This initiative was developed by ACWA Power, a national corporation with expertise in this area, showcasing a successful experience in localizing jobs. While 90 percent of Saudis working at the Sakaka station are from al-Jawf Province, 100 percent of the staff is Saudi.

The development and implementation of the project was driven by the national ambition to expand in renewable energy. In 2017, the Renewable Energy Projects Development Office launched the first phase of renewable energy projects in the Kingdom, including the Sakaka PV project.

A group of private companies in the Kingdom, led by ACWA Power, won the contract to implement the Sakaka Solar Power Plant Project. They offered a world record tariff of 8.781 halalas/kWh in the solar photovoltaic sector, which can reduce over 430,000 t of carbon emissions every year.

The Sakaka project has great investment value. Its construction cost is estimated at approximately SAR 1.125 billion (USD300 million). It created about 930 job opportunities in the construction, operation, and maintenance stages, and is expected to contribute about SAR450 million (USD120 million) to the gross domestic product (GDP).

Utilizing renewable energy sources is crucial to minimizing the amount of liquid fuel used in the production of electricity and achieving the ideal balance of energy sources. This is how the Sakaka PV power plant project achieves the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.

The development of renewable energy initiatives reflects the Kingdom's commitment to utilizing its natural resources. It brings multiple benefits, such as improving power production's energy efficiency, and confirming and strengthening its environmental commitment to lowering the level of emissions that contribute to global warming.

As one of the renewable energy projects led by the Ministry of Energy, the Sakaka PV Plant Project is being carried out through Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and the procurement of power, which will be generated by these projects. This will be achieved within the framework of twenty-five-year power purchase agreements with the Saudi Power Procurement Company.

Along with other projects to produce electricity from solar energy across different regions of the Kingdom, which have achieved record levels, the economic impact of the Sakaka solar power plant was shown in the world's lowest cost of solar electricity purchase. The combined energy of these projects was anticipated to be more than 3,600 MW, enough to power more than six hundred thousand homes.

By earning the Deal of the Year award for the renewable energy sector in the Middle East and Africa for the year 2019, the Sakaka PV Plant Project gained recognition on a global scale in its first year. The Dawat al-Jandal project, which uses wind energy to produce electricity, received the same honor the following year, which is one of the PFI Awards. For Saudi renewable energy projects, this was their second triumph in a row in gaining independent international recognition of setting the benchmark for renewable energy generation projects in the region.