Dumat Al Jandal, the Middle East’s largest wind farm and the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, has produced its first carbon-free megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy.
Located around 900 kilometers north of Riyadh in the Al-Jouf region, the 400-megawatt (MW) utility-scale wind power project is now connected to the country’s electricity transmission grid and is being developed by a consortium led by EDF Renewables and Masdar.
The wind farm consists of 99 wind turbines, from supplier and EPC contractor Vestas, each with a hub height of 130 meters and a rotor diameter of 150 meters, capable of producing 4.2 MW of power per turbine.
Construction on the facility began in September 2019, and the process of erecting the wind turbines are nearly completed.
When complete, the wind farm will supply energy to power up to 70,000 Saudi homes, saving 988,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The wind farm is also creating more than 600 local jobs during the construction phase.
The Dumat Al Jandal wind farm will supply electricity under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Saudi Power Procurement Company, a subsidiary of the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), the Saudi power generation and distribution company.
