PVTIME – A key milestone in Sino-Saudi renewable energy collaboration has been achieved with the official full-capacity grid connection and commencement of electricity generation by the 1.1 GW REPDO4-AHK solar project, which is fully contracted by China Power Construction Group (PowerChina).
Located in the desert to the west of Medina, a sacred city in Saudi Arabia, the project is a significant outcome of the collaboration between Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. With a total installed capacity of 1,100MW, the plant is one of the largest new energy projects in the Middle East.
The solar plant is expected to generate 3.1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually, enough to power 750,000 local households. It will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.1 million tonnes and sulphur dioxide emissions by 93,000 tonnes each year, providing significant support for Saudi Arabia’s efforts to optimise its energy structure and drive low-carbon economic and social transformation.
During construction, PowerChina’s project team successfully overcame challenges including extreme desert heat, demands of cross-cultural collaboration and integration of transnational resources. By developing an innovative, highly efficient collaborative management system, the team delivered high-quality construction and set a new record for the fastest completion of a solar project of this type in Saudi Arabia, showcasing China’s speed and efficiency.
This achievement showcases the system integration capabilities and strong delivery performance of Chinese enterprises in the international new energy engineering sector. Once connected to the grid, the project will substantially increase the proportion of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia’s energy mix, providing a replicable and scalable model for green energy transition cooperation across the Middle East.
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