Saudi Arabia’s Renewable Energy Project Development Office (Repdo) has invited developers to submit expressions of interest (EOI) for seven photovoltaic (PV) projects under the second round of the kingdom’s National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP).

Developers have been invited to submit EOIs by 14 February for the seven projects, which will have a combined total capacity of 1.51GW.

According to the EOI document, Repdo has the discretion to tender each project separately or as a group.

The seven projects under the second round of the NREP are:

• Medina solar PV IPP: Medina Province, approximately 26 kilometres from Medina city (50MW)
• Rafha solar PV IPP: Northern Borders province, approximately 16km from Rafha city (45MW)
• Qurayyat solar PV IPP: Al-Jawf Province, approximately 15km from Qurayyat city (200MW)
• Al-Faisaliah solar PV IPP: Mecca Province, approximately 80km south of Jeddah city (600MW)
• Rabigh solar PV IPP: Mecca Province, approximately 145km north of Jeddah city (300MW)
• Jeddah solar PV IPP: Mecca Province, approximately 50km southeast of Jeddah city (300MW)
• Mahd al-Dahab solar PV IPP: Medina Province, approximately 150km southeast of Medina (20MW)

Repdo’s advisers for the second round include Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) as lead and financial adviser, the UK’s DLA Piper as legal adviser and Germany’s Fichtner as technical adviser.

The kingdom recently revised its renewable energy targets, now targeting an ambitious 27.3GW of clean energy by 2024 and 58.7GW by 2030. The 2024 target will include 20GW of PV solar, with the 2030 target including PV solar capacity of 40GW.

Repdo will spearhead the development of 30 per cent of the total capacity, with sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) to oversee the development of the remaining 70 per cent.