PROJECTS: Bahrain's Kanoo, India's CleanMax plan solar power JVs in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

Bahrain-based Kanoo Industrial and Energy and India's CleanMax have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish joint venture companies in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to provide solar solutions to customers in both Kingdoms.

 

Press statements published by local press in Bahrain said the JVs would provide Saudi and Bahraini customers with on-site solar solutions on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis without upfront investment on the part of customers, while providing them with green electricity at a competitive cost.

 

Ali Abdulla Kanoo, President of Kanoo Industrial and Energy, said, "We are pleased to collaborate with CleanMax to provide our Saudi Arabian commercial and industrial customers with innovative solar energy solutions. We take pride in our extensive experience, which spans across two decades, in providing energy services to the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), government institutions and private companies. We recognise the importance of solar energy growth and expansion through our collaboration with Asia's most prominent commercial and industrial renewable energy provider.”

 

The JVs will provide grid-related systems that customers can install with or without exporting surplus energy to utility companies as well as hybrid solar systems synchronised to the customer’s captive power plants, providing maximum power during the day and regulating high-efficiency energy supply.

 

Sushant Arora, Co-founder and CEO (MENA) at CleanMax, said, “This partnership will leverage CleanMax’ strengths of building, operating and financing high-performance renewable energy assets and Kanoo’s considerable presence in the Kingdom. I’m confident that together we will be the sustainability partners of choice for commercial and industrial customers in KSA.”

 

Kanoo Industrial and Energy is a division of the Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo Group – one of the largest family-owned, independent companies in the Middle East.

 

India-based CleanMax is regionally headquartered in Dubai, where 80 percent of its current installations are based with a 60-megawatt (MW) portfolio. In a soon-to-be published interview with Zawya Projects, Arora had said that the company would be looking at a portfolio of 200 MW in the Middle East region in a couple of years, with an investment scale of $120-130 million.

 

(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)