Saudi Arabia announces major investment plans in power, water, infrastructure and tourism sectors

Saudi Arabia announces major investment plans in power, water, infrastructure and tourism sectors

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