Meed | Finance in place for 4.5GW Saudi solar schemes

Finance in place for 4.5GW Saudi solar schemes

19 February 2024

Acwa Power has announced that three solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in Saudi Arabia with a total combined capacity of 4,550MW have satisfied the conditions precedent for senior loans drawdown.

The Riyadh-headquartered utility developer and its partner, Water & Electricity Holding Company (Badeel), signed the power-purchase agreements with Saudi Power Procurement Company to develop and operate the three projects in May last year.

The three projects, located in the central and northern regions of Saudi Arabia, are:

Al Rass 2: 2,000MW
Saad 2: 1,125MW
Al Kahfah: 1,425MW

The projects are estimated to cost a combined SR12.8bn ($3.4bn).

According to Acwa Power's recent bourse filing, the banks that agreed to provide senior debt financing of SR8.6bn ($2.3bn) for the projects include:

Banque Saudi Fransi (local)
HSBC (UK)
Mizuho Bank (Japan)
Riyad Bank (local)
Saudi Awwal Bank (local)
Saudi National Bank (local)
Standard Chartered Bank (UK)

The financing duration is 27.75 years. The project debt financing amount is non-recourse to Acwa Power, which owns a 50.1% equity in the three projects.

Its partner, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) subsidiary Badeel, owns the remaining 49.9% equity in the projects.

MEED reported in June 2023 that the developer team expected to have the financing in place for the projects by last year.

The three projects take the number of solar PV contracts awarded by the PIF under the kingdom’s National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP) to five.

It awarded contracts for the development of the 1,500MW Sudair solar PV in 2021 and the 2,060MW Shuaibah 2 solar PV in 2022.

Badeel is a wholly owned subsidiary of the PIF, which is mandated to develop 70% of the NREP’s target capacity through the kingdom's Price Discovery Scheme.

The PIF also owns a 44% in Acwa Power.

Acwa Power has yet to disclose the levelised electricity cost for the latest three schemes.

Based on MEED data, the three projects take the total number of solar PV contracts being developed by an Acwa Power-led team in Saudi Arabia to 10. These projects have a total combined capacity of 10GW.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo