The renewable arm of Larsen & Toubro’s Power transmission and distribution business has bagged a turnkey EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract from the consortium of ACWA Power and the Water and Electricity Holding Company (a subsidiary of the Public Investments Fund of Saudi Arabia), for Sudair solar PV project of 1.5GW capacity. This mega project is considered the largest Solar Plant in Saudi Arabia with power purchase agreement (PPA) signed. It is also one of the largest such plants in the world.
Larsen & Toubro is an Indian multinational company, engaged in EPC projects, hi-tech manufacturing and services with over USD 21 billion in revenue. It operates in over 30 countries worldwide. L&T has been a provider of EPC services for several green projects in recent years. The L&T has over 2.1 GW of Utility Scale Solar projects commissioned, and are also operating and maintaining several of them. “With several GWs of solar EPC experience, L&T has emerged as a global technology player for solar plants,” said S N Subrahmanyan, CEO & Managing Director, Larsen & Toubro. The company has been building efficient power transmission and distribution networks with modern substations and transmission lines in this region for more than two decades. This project will be another recognition of company’s capabilities to construct mega projects at such high scale.
The Renewables arm of Larsen & Toubro’s Power Transmission & Distribution Business has not yet disclosed the value of the contract, but said the orders fall under the “major” category, which ranges between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 7,000 crore, according to the classification of contracts. The project that is coming up in Riyadh Province has a 30.8 square kilometer land parcel available to install a total capacity of 1.5GW PV Solar modules with associated single axial tracker and inverters.
The ambitions of Saudi Arabia’s National Renewable Energy Programme are on track. As part of the NREP, Sudair Solar PV Project is awarded to PIF and its partner, ACWA Power.
The project is part of the 70 per cent target capacity of 58.7 GW, and the Kingdom has assigned to the Public Investment Fund.
