RIYADH — The Ministry of Energy announced the start of the trial operation of the first turbine in the Dumat Al-Jandal wind farm project in the northern Al-Jouf region. The project, which will exploit wind energy in the production of electricity, is the first project of its kind that comes within the framework of the ambitious plan of producing 50 percent of the electricity in the Kingdom from renewable energy sources by 2030. The launching of the project comes in implementation of one of the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030. The Dumat Al-Jandal plant is located in Al-Jouf emirate, 900 kilometers northwest of Riyadh. The 400MW onshore wind farm will become Saudi Arabia's first utility-scale wind power source. Dumat Al-Jandal plant, the largest in the Middle East region, is being developed by a consortium of EDF Renewables and Masdar under an award by the Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) at the Ministry of Energy. The project will contribute $150 million to the country's gross domestic product (GDP). REPDO was commissioned for this project in January 2019. The plant, which is expected to be completed in 2022, will displace the emission of about one million tons of carbon dioxide annually, while its production capacity will reach 400 megawatts. The wind farm will benefit from a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Saudi Power Procurement Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Electricity Company. The cost of the Dumat Al-Jandal wind power plant is $500 million. After the establishment of the station is completed, the station will be able to generate sustainable energy sufficient for about 70,000 housing units. The Dumat Al-Jandal project was chosen as the first wind energy project in Saudi Arabia, after studies showed a strong mixture of wind capacities at the project site, so that the expected average production of the plant is about 1.4 TWh. It is worth mentioning that the National Renewable Energy Program aims to achieve a significant increase in the contribution of renewable energy to the energy mix used to generate electricity in the Kingdom. The Sakaka solar photovoltaic project and the Dumat Al-Jandal wind energy project constitute the first phase of the program's projects.
