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Region's largest wind farm receives first batch of turbines

Region's largest wind farm receives first batch of turbines
The 400-megawatt project is being developed by a consortium of EDF Renewables and Masdar

Riyadh – Mubasher: Dumat Al Jandal utility-scale wind farm in Saudi Arabia has received 20 wind turbines at Duba Port. The $500-million project was awarded to a consortium led by EDF Renewables in collaboration with Masdar in January 2019.

The turbines, consisting of towers, blades, and nacelles, will be assembled at the Dumat Al Jandal site situated 900 kilometres north of Riyadh, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported on Wednesday.

Upon completion, the 400-megawatt (MW) project will be the kingdom’s first wind farm and the largest in the Middle East. Construction began last August and commercial operations are set to start in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.

Once fully operational, the wind farm will power up to 70,000 Saudi households and displace around 988,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

In this regard, CEO of Saudi Power Procurement Company, responsible for purchasing the entire production of the project, Osama bin Abdulwahab Khawandanah, said, "Dumat Al Jandal is our first wind energy project producing electricity at scale and as a key project under the King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative, it is playing a key role in diversifying Saudi Arabia's power mix sustainably.”

In turn, EDF Renewables’ International executive vice president, Frédéric Belloy, commented, "This key construction milestone, in the largest wind farm of Middle East, highlights the progress achieved in the delivery phase of the project by the consortium and its suppliers, thanks to the support of the Kingdom’s authorities and entities in charge of implementing the National Renewable Energy Programme."

For his part, CEO of Masdar, Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, noted that the delivery of the first batch of wind turbines is a significant landmark in the development of the wind farm and the realisation of the kingdom’s wider renewable energy programme.