L&T Construction bags largest solar plant project of Saudi Arabia

The renewables arm of Larsen & Toubro Limited’s power transmission & distribution business has secured a turnkey EPC contract, from the consortium of ACWA Power and Water & Electricity Holding Company [a subsidiary of Public Investments Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF)], for Sudair Solar PV Project of 1.5 GW capacity. This project is considered the largest solar plant in Saudi Arabia and is also, one of the largest such plants in the world. 

The project that is coming up in Riyadh Province has a 30.8 square kilometre land parcel available to install a total capacity of 1.5 GW PV solar modules with associated single axial tracker and inverters. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 5,000 crore-Rs 7,000 crore. 

As part of Saudi Arabia’s National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), Sudair Solar PV Project is awarded to PIF and its partner, ACWA Power. This project is a part of the 70 per cent of the target capacity of 58.7 GW of the Kingdom assigned to PIF, while Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) would undertake competitive tendering for the remaining 30 per cent, as announced by the Ministry of Energy in 2019. 

L&T is India’s largest EPC company to build hydel power plants, the largest market player to build nuclear power plants with a total capability of 9,360 MWe, including some ongoing projects, on an EPC turnkey basis with a capacity to make important critical components like steam turbines, generators, end shields, and other critical equipment. 

As per the company's management, it has the largest market share of the flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) units for fossil fuel power plants. It has over 2.1 GW of utility-scale solar projects commissioned and is also operating & maintaining several of them. It has a diversified renewable portfolio of 32 MW floating solar power plants, 135 MWH of battery energy storage projects, 500 microgrids, and 14,000 solar water pumps. 

On Friday, the stock of L&T opened flat at Rs 1,419.10 and was trading 1.6 per cent lower at Rs 1,397.10 on BSE. It got closed at Rs 1,404.