South Korea’s policy lender will provide $225 million in project financing for a solar power plant in Saudi Arabia, the largest overseas solar project undertaken by a Korean company, the Export-Import Bank of Korea announced on Tuesday.
In November, a consortium led by the United Arab Emirates' global renewables company Masdar, secured the project to build a solar power plant in the Sadawi desert area, 523 kilometers north of Riyadh. The state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. and GD Power of China were members of the consortium.
Covering an area of 39.6 square kilometers, the plant will feature around 3.7 million solar modules, producing a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts.
The plant is expected to produce energy of 6,500 gigawatt-hours per year, which matches the annual household electricity consumption of Korea’s second-largest city, Busan. Upon its completion in 2027, the generated electricity will be purchased entirely by the Saudi Power Procurement Company for 25 years.
The Sadawi project stands as the largest overseas solar power project undertaken by a Korean company. It is also the first time for a Korean company to take on a solar project in Saudi Arabia.
“Exim Bank will continue to support Korean companies to take on renewable energy projects in the Middle East region, including Saudi Arabia, contributing to global carbon neutrality,” an official from the policy lender said.
In July 2024, the lender announced it would provide $150 million in project financing for a major solar power project in the United Arab Emirates, a project jointly secured by state-owned Korea Western Power Co. and French energy company EDF-Renewables.
silverstar@heraldcorp.com
