Saudi Arabia Gets Cheapest Bids for Solar Power in Auction
- Masdar, EDF offer to supply power for 1.7 cents/Kilowatt hour
- Plant to be first in $50 billion plan to expand renewables
Photovoltaic solar panels sit in an array at the 16-megawatt Visonta solar power station operated by Matrai Eromu Zrt, in Visonta, Hungary, on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Coal for delivery in Europe in 2017 will fall about 11 percent by December, taking the gloss off the longest rally in year-ahead prices since 2010, according to a survey of traders and analysts by Bloomberg.
Photographer: Akos Stiller/BloombergSaudi Arabia received offers to supply solar electricity for the cheapest prices ever recorded, marking the start of a $50 billion program to diversify the oil producer’s domestic energy supplies away from fossil fuels.
The energy ministry said Abu Dhabi’s Masdar and Electricite de France SA bid to supply power from a 300-megawatt photovoltaic plant for as little as 6.69736 halalas a kilowatt hour, or 1.79 cents, according to a webcast of the bid-opening ceremony on Tuesday in Riyadh. If awarded, that would beat the previous record for a solar project in Abu Dhabi for 2.42 cents a kilowatt-hour.