China's Sungrow has won a contract to supply India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) with inverter skid solutions for a 2.2GW(ac) PV plant that will form part of the giant Neom green hydrogen project in Saudi Arabia.
For its part, engineering and construction group L&T was selected by the Neom Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) in June to put in place what will be largest single-site utility-scale PV Plant in the Middle East.
NGHC's Neom hydrogen mega-plant in Oxagan, Saudi Arabia, is expected to produce up to 600 tonnes per day of carbon-free hydrogen by the end of 2026, and this will provide demand for 4GW of wind, solar and batteries, using more than 2GW of hydrogen electrolysis.
The project is a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia's futuristic 2030 Vision project that promises investments of up to $500bn in order to build a linear city called Neom stretching 170 kilometres eastwards from the Red Sea.
Sungrow had already contracted to supply 2.2GW of solar PV and 400MWh of battery energy storage systems for the Neom Green Hydrogen project.
"We are proud to be associated with this prestigious project as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) solution provider for the renewable energy and associated evacuation infrastructure for this project," said Mr. T Madhava Das, director & senior executive vice president (utilities) at L&T.
The NGHC joint-venture was signed in 2020 by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, US-based Air Products and Neom, backed by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund.
NGHC aims to produce green hydrogen at-scale for global export in the form of green ammonia with a total investment of $8.4bn.
With the backing of 23 local, regional, and international banking and financial institutions, the project achieved full financial close in May 2022, triggering awards of long-lead contracts.
Acting as the system-integrating EPC contractor and exclusive off-taker of green ammonia to be produced from the project, Air Products awarded $2.8bn worth of contracts to L&T in June last year, giving the Indian company the key role of establishing renewable energy generation, as well as storage and grid infrastructure.
In addition to the 2.2 GW PV plant, L&T said these contracts will cover engineering, procurement, and construction covering balance of plant on 1.65GW of wind generation and a 400MWh battery energy storage system.
The Indian group said it will also construct switching stations overhead lines and underground cables required for the new grid network, as well as the energy power monitoring system (EPMS) for the complete network.
Also in June, Chinese OEM Envision Energy was picked to supply almost 1.7GW of its 6.5MW wind turbines.
