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Saudi Arabia announced major investments in power, water, infrastructure and tourism sectors last week. These have been summarised below as follows:
- Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC), the principal buyer of electrical energy and capacity for power projects in the Kingdom, unveiled five new renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 3,300 megawatts (MW). This includes three wind energy projects - Yanbu (700 MW), Al-Ghat (600 MW) and Waad Al-Shamal (500 MW) – generating a total of 1,800 MW and two solar projects with a total capacity of 1,500 MW - Al-Henakiyah (1,100 MW) and Tubarjal (400 MW).
- Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture will invest 40 billion Saudi riyals in the water sector and approximately 105 billion riyals ($10.6 billion) during the next three years to increase water efficiency and recycling.
- Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing will invest 40 billion riyals ($10.6 billion) in developing local infrastructure projects to provide over 150,000 housing units across 11 cities to accommodate around 750,000 people
- Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) signed an agreement with National Grid Company to develop and upgrade AlUla’s electricity supply network, with estimated loads of 1,000 megavolt amperes, at a total cost of 3.5 billion riyals ($931 million).
- The Tourism Development Fund said it will finance tourism projects up to 50 percent of the project value, along with bank funding.
(Writing by D Madhura; Editing by Anoop Menon)
