South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility has won the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for Shuaibah 3 Independent Water Project in Saudi Arabia, reports said.

The $640-million desalination project is developed by a special purpose vehicle (Shuaibah Three Water Desalination Company) launched by Saudi utility developer Acwa Power and Water and Electricity Holding Company (Badeel), which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s PIF sovereign wealth fund.

Earlier, In June, Acwa Power, Shuaibah Water Electricity Company (SWEC), and Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC), the off-taker of Shuaibah 3 IWPP, signed an agreement to restructure the Shuaibah 3 Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP).

The agreement entailed the conversion and replacement of the IWPP from an energy-intensive power generation and thermal desalination facility to a greenfield seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant under the name “Shuaibah 3 Independent Water Project (IWP)”. The Shuaibah 3 IWP aims to establish the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination facility in Shuaibah, located 110 km south of Jeddah.

Under the EPC contract, Doosan Enerbility (formerly Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction) will build a desalination plant capable of producing 600,000 cu m of water per day and a 60 MW solar power plant.

The project work is expected to start this month (September) and completion is scheduled for May 2025. Once completed, the desalination plant will supply potable water to 2 million people. The solar farm will provide electric power to the desalination plant.