Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth vehicle the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Saudi utility developer Acwa Power are preparing to sign the agreements for contracts to develop 3GW of wind farm projects in Saudi Arabia as part of the 2025 round of the kingdom's National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP).

According to industry sources, this round comprises wind farm projects in two locations. The first wind farm will have a capacity of 2,000MW while the second will have a capacity of 1,000MW.

These projects are being procured through direct negotiations between the PIF and Acwa Power, under the Price Discovery Scheme.

Under this programme, the selected national champion, Acwa Power, is expected to match the tariffs resulting from the latest round of the publicly tendered schemes, the procurement process for which is managed by the principal buyer, Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC).

These projects will correspond to the cluster of round-six NREP projects that are being publicly tendered by SPPC.

SPPC's round-six schemes comprise four solar photovoltaic (PV) independent power projects (IPPs) and one wind IPP.

The bids for these schemes are expected in June, which implies that the PIF and Acwa Power are likely to announce the signing of the two wind farm agreements in Q3 or Q4, once the project's financing package has been agreed with banks.

This round will precede the cluster of solar projects, with an estimated capacity of 13GW, which will likely be procured in 2026, roughly corresponding to round seven of the publicly tendered NREP projects being procured by SPPC.

Previous PIF round

Acwa Power and its partners reached financial close for three large-scale solar PV power plants with a total combined capacity of 5,500MW in September last year, three months after the contracts were signed.

The solar PV projects and their capacities are:

• Haden solar PV: 2,000MW
• Muwayh: 2,000MW
• Al-Khushaybi: 1,500MW

The respective project companies that have been formed for the three schemes are Buraiq Renewable Energy Company, Moya Renewable Energy Company and Nabah Renewable Energy Company.

Acwa Power’s shareholding in each of the three projects is 35.1%. The PIF-backed Water & Electricity Holding Company (Badeel) owns 34.9% and Saudi Aramco Power Company (Sapco), a subsidiary of state majority-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco, owns the remaining shares.

The three solar PV facilities have a combined value of SR12.3bn ($3.3bn) and are expected to become operational in the first half of 2027.

The project companies signed financing documents amounting to SR9.7bn ($2.6bn). The financing duration is 27.3 years.

PIF solar PV projects

The three, 5.5GW NREP round-four projects have taken the total capacity of solar PV projects being developed by Acwa Power and its partners under the PIF Price Discovery Scheme to about 19.1GW, involving an investment of over $12.3bn.

The other projects include the 1.5GW Sudair solar PV, which is operational; and the 2.06GW Shuaibah 2, Al-Rass 2, Al-Kahfah and Saad 2, which are under construction.