Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC) has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-Care) to provide water for its development.

“We will be the sole water provider for KA-Care. It will have a demand of 700,000 cubic metres a day [cm/d] 10 years from today,” said Nasser al-Amiri, head of TSE Business Unit at NWC, speaking at MEED’s Middle East Water and Wastewater Conference 2012 in Abu Dhabi.

KA-Care was established by royal order in April 2010 to oversee the kingdom’s large nuclear and renewable energy projects. Plans for nuclear and renewable power are being drawn up separately, but in parallel with one another. KA-Care is yet to confirm the scale of its nuclear power aspirations but reports suggest it is planning to develop a 17GW nuclear programme by 2032. It is currently in the process of appointing an advisory team to develop the regulatory and legal framework for the plans.

On the renewable energy side, KA-Care is preparing to invite bids to develop 2,850MW of clean energy as independent power projects (IPPs). Bidders will be asked to submit a proposed tariff for the power generated from their projects.