L&T to build renewables facilities for Saudi’s $6.4-bn green hydrogen project: report
29 Jun 2022
Saudi Arabia's NEOM Green Hydrogen Co is reported to have selected Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to build solar and wind plants for supplying electricity to the city’s $6.4-billion green hydrogen-based ammonia plant, business magazine MEED reported.
MEED, formerly Middle East Economic Digest, is a media publishing company founded in 1957 focused on economic and business news related to the Middle East
ACWA Power, one of the three equity partners in NGHC along with Air Products and NEOM Co, is responsible for supplying the energy to the project. The Riyadh-based firm declined to comment on the news when contacted by Arab News.
According to MEED, L&T, along with Energy China and Power China, submitted a proposal for an engineering, procurement and construction contract to build the renewable energy infrastructure.
The work comprises construction of a 2,930 MW solar power generation plant, a 1,370 MW wind power farm and a 400 MW battery energy storage system, besides a 190-km power transmission network. according to reports citing sources familiar with the plan.
The wind and solar power plants are planned to be located in northwest Saudi Arabia in proximity to the hydrogen plant, which is to be built at OXAGON industrial zone in NEOM city.
The Saudi giga project for a futuristic city will initially be powered by up to 50 per cent grid-connected energy from non-renewable sources, and the first renewable auctions will start next year. Deliveries of the utility energy from the renewable are targeted for 2024-2025.
“We are looking at the first auctions to come online next year. We are looking at private investors related to the electrolyser project announced between ACWA POWER, ENOWA and Air products recently alone to build 4.5 gigawatts of renewable power,” Thorsten Schwarz, executive director, Grid Technology & Projects of NEOM, said
“That means over the first years we have to work with all the resources of power that we can get. We are currently working with our partner National Grid (subsidiary of Saudi Electric Company) to strengthen the connections to bring power to NEOM. We will probably start at 50 percent renewable from day one and then venture into 100 per cent by 2030 or earlier as possible,” he said.
NEOM had, in mid-June, announced that its energy, water, and hydrogen subsidiary ENOWA had signed a MoU with Japan's ITOCHU, and France's Veolia to build a desalination plant powered by 100 per cent renewable energy.