The renewables arm of Larsen & Toubro’s Power Transmission & Distribution Business has secured a turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract from the consortium of ACWA Power and the Water and Electricity Holding Company, a subsidiary of the Public Investments Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), for the Sudair Solar photovoltaic (PV) Project of 1.5 GW capacity.

The project is considered to be the largest solar project in Saudi Arabia.

The project coming up in Riyadh Province has a 30.8 square kilometer land parcel available to install a total capacity of 1.5 GW PV solar modules with associated single axis tracker and inverters.

As part of Saudi Arabia’s National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), the Sudair project is awarded to PIF and its partner, ACWA Power. This project is part of 70% of the target capacity of 58.7 GW assigned to PIF. The Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) would undertake competitive tendering for the remaining 30%.

“With several GW of solar EPC experience, L&T has emerged as a global technology player for solar plants,” said S.N. Subrahmanyan, chief executive officer and managing director, Larsen & Toubro.

Securing the project is a major milestone in the firm’s clean and green energy path to fight the climate crisis that the world faces, Subrahmanyan said.

“L&T has been a provider of EPC services for several green projects in recent years. We have a diversified renewable portfolio of 32 M.W. floating solar power plants, 135 MWh of battery energy storage projects, 500 microgrids, and 14,000 solar water pumps. L&T is also working on potential solutions related to green hydrogen and carbon capture and storage technologies.”

In an expansion move, in a BSE filing in February this year, L&T had said its power transmission & distribution business had secured two engineering, procurement, and construction orders to establish over 400 MW of solar projects in Gujarat.

In 2020, Saudi Arabia had issued the request for qualification (RfQ) for four solar projects with a cumulative capacity of 1,200 MW.