The Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia commemorated the mid-way mark of the construction of the Dumat Al Jandal wind farm, the kingdom’s first utility-scale wind farm of more than 400MW capacity and the largest in the Middle East.

Vestas, the energy industry’s global partner on sustainable energy solutions, is playing a vital role in the project, having installed half of the 99 V150-4.2MW wind turbines for the project. The project is being developed by a consortium led by renewable energy leaders in the region: EDF Renewables and Masdar, which awarded Vestas the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) order in 2019. The scope of work included the supply and installation of 99 V150-4.2MW wind turbines, as well as a 20-year Active Output Management 4000 service agreement for the operation and maintenance of the wind farm.

Located in the Al Jouf province, 900 km north of Riyadh, the Dumat Al Jandal wind farm project was awarded to the consortium by the Renewable Energy Project Development Office (Repdo) of the Saudi Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources (MEIM) in 2019.

As per the deal, the Dumat Al Jandal wind farm will supply electricity under a 20-year purchase agreement (PPA) with the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC), a subsidiary of the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), the Saudi power generation and distribution company.

Once completed and commercially operational in 2022, the wind farm will potentially supply clean electricity to 70,000 Saudi households and will displace 988,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.