The 400MW Dumat Al-Jandal wind farm is the first utility-scale wind power project in Saudi Arabia and one of the biggest wind farms in the Middle East.

Estimated to cost £401m ($500m), the onshore wind farm is being developed by a consortium of France-based EDF Renewables (51%) and Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar (49%).

The construction works were started in August 2019 after the development partners reached financial closure for the project in June 2019, while the installation of the first turbines was started in August 2020.

The first phase of the Dumat Al-Jandal wind farm was connected to the grid in August 2021 marking the first power generation, while the full-scale commercial operations are expected to be started in the first half of 2022.

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At full capacity, the wind farm is expected to generate enough electricity to power approximately 70,000 Saudi homes, while offsetting up to one million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 emissions a year.

Dumat Al-Jandal wind power project background

The Dumat Al-Jandal wind farm is being developed in line with Saudi Arabia’s goal to install 16GW of wind capacity and generate 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

The EDF Renewables-Masdar consortium won the tender for the Dumat Al-Jandal wind farm from the Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) of the Saudi Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources (MEIM) in January 2019.

REPDO launched tenders for the wind farm in round one of Saudi Arabia’s National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP) in August 2017. The EDF French-Emirati consortium had submitted the most cost-competitive bid of £16.7 ($21.3) per megawatt-hour (MWh). The tariff was further reduced to £15.6 ($19.9)/MWh at the time of financial closure for the project.

Dumat Al-Jandal wind farm location

The Dumat Al Jandal wind park is located in a plateau in the Al Jouf region of north-western Saudi Arabia, approximately 900km north of the capital city Riyadh.

Dumat Al-Jandal wind farm make-up

The Dumat Al-Jandal onshore wind farm will be installed with 99 units of V150-4.2MW wind turbines from Vestas.

With a hub height of 130m and a rotor diameter of 150m, each turbine will have a swept area of 17,671m².

The Vestas V150-4.2MW turbines come with 12.8m-long, 6.9m-high and 4.2m-wide nacelles and 73.7m-long blades and are designed to operate at a cut-in speed of 3m/s and a cut-out speed of 22.5m/s.

Each turbine can operate at a frequency of 50/60Hz and generate up to 4.2MW in power optimised mode and 3.6MW in load optimised mode.

Power transmission

The electricity generated by the wind farm is evacuated into the Saudi Arabian electricity transmission grid through a 380kV overhead power line. The other transmission infrastructure for the project includes 380KV/132KV gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) and 502MVA power transformers.

Power purchase agreement

Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC), a subsidiary of the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), will off-take the entire electricity output of the wind farm under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).

Financing

A group of six banks including the Korea Development Bank (KDB), French corporate and investment bank Natixis, the National Commercial Bank (NCB) of Saudi Arabia, Japanese co-operative bank Norinchukin, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and French multi-national investment bank Societe Generale agreed to provide £212m ($270m) of mini-perm financing for the Dumat Al-Jandal wind power project in June 2019.

Contractors involved in the Al-Jandal wind power project

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas was awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the supply and installation of 99 V150-4.2MW wind turbines for the Al-Jandal wind farm in July 2019. The contractual scope also includes a 20-year service agreement for the operation and maintenance of the wind turbines.

Spanish engineering and construction company TSK is responsible for the balance-of-plant (BOP) works, while Al Babtain Contracting Company was contracted for substations and high-voltage transmission solutions.

CG Holdings Belgium NV Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CG Power and Industrial Solutions, was contracted to design and build the high-voltage substations for the project in July 2019.

Esteyco was subcontracted by TSK to provide detailed design of braced foundations for the turbine towers, while Barranquesa provided anchor cages and Suleiman bin Saleh Almohileb Company (MHC) supplied special ready-mix concrete for the construction of turbine foundations.

Esteyco was also engaged in the geotechnical survey, while Kintech Engineering provided wind data loggers for wind resource measurement at the project site.