The largest wind farm in the Middle East continues its development with the arrival of the first turbines
The Dumat al-Jandal wind farm in Saudi Arabia has taken a major step forward in its construction with the arrival of 20 wind turbines in Duba port. The 400-megawatt project is being developed by a consortium led by EDF Renewables in partnership with Masdar and will be the largest in the Middle East.
The turbines comprising towers, blades and nacelles will be assembled at the Dumat al-Jandal site, located 900 kilometres north of Riyadh in the Al-Jouf region, according to a press release issued on Wednesday.
A total of 99 Vestas V150-4.2MW wind turbines, with a hub height of 130 metres and a rotor diameter of 150 metres, will be installed.
Vestas is also responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the project, while TSK manages the rest of the plant and Al-Babtain Contracting Company provides the project's substations and high-voltage solutions.
Dumat al-Jandal will be the first wind farm in Saudi Arabia and the largest in the region when completed. Construction began last August and commercial operations will begin in the first quarter of 2022.
Once fully operational, the wind farm will supply 70,000 Saudi households, while displacing around 988,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
The Saudi Ministry of Energy's Renewable Energy Project Development Office awarded the $500 million Dumat al-Jandal wind farm to the EDF Renewables-Masdar consortium in January 2019, following a competitive bidding process in which it submitted the lowest bid of $21.3 per megawatt hour.
The tariff was further improved to $19.9 MWh at financial close, making Dumat al-Jandal the most profitable wind project anywhere in the world.
This infrastructure will supply electricity under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Saudi Power Procurement Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Electricity Company, the Saudi power generation and distribution company.
Osama bin Abdulwahab Khawandanah, CEO of Saudi Power Procurement Company, which is responsible for purchasing all production from the Dumat al-Jandal project, highlighted the scale of the project: "Dumat al-Jandal is our first wind energy project that produces electricity at scale and as a key project under the King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative, it is playing a key role in diversifying Saudi Arabia's energy mix in a sustainable manner. "Dumat al-Jandal reflects our strong partnership with the private sector and the commercial viability of wind energy, enabling us to establish a competitive renewable energy sector in the Kingdom while reducing our carbon emissions in line with Vision 2030.
Frédéric Belloy, Executive Vice President International of EDF Renewables, highlighted this key moment for the wind farm: "This key construction milestone, in the largest wind farm in the Middle East, highlights the progress made in the project delivery phase by the consortium and its suppliers, thanks to the support of the Kingdom's authorities and entities responsible for implementing the National Renewable Energy Programme".
For his part, Mohammed Jameel al-Ramahi, executive director of Masdar, said in statements collected by the Emirates news agency WAM that "the delivery of the first batch of wind turbines is a significant milestone in the development of the Dumat al-Jandal wind farm and the realization of the largest renewable energy program in Saudi Arabia.