The US’ GE and state oil company Saudi Aramco are to install Saudi Arabia’s first wind turbine in the north-west area of the kingdom.

The turbine will be installed at Saudi Aramco’s Turaif Bulk plant. The pilot scheme will use GE’s 2.75-120 wind turbine, which will be able to produce up to 3.3MW of electricity during peak periods.

In April, Riyadh announced it was planning to develop 9.5GW of renewable energy under its Vision 2030. In early June, it was revealed that the kingdom has set an initial target for installing 3.5GW of renewable energy facilities by 2020.

It was announced during the approval of Vision 2030 in April that Riyadh was planning to establish the King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative to play a central role in driving forward its renewable energy programme.