Saudi Arabian investment fund to raise stake in ACWA Power

It is banking on ACWA Power's diversification into solar power and electric vehicles.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has announced plans to raise its stake in the domestic power and water project developer ACWA Power from 25% to 40%. This move comes at a time when the sovereign fund intends to diversify into solar power and electric vehicles, expand its activities overseas and become a global investor in renewable energies.

ACWA Power develops, co-owns and operates a portfolio of 32 power plants with a combined installed capacity of more than 29 GW. In particular, it has a significant track record in renewable energy and won the Sakaka 300 MW solar PV project in Al Jawf (Saudi Arabia) in February 2018 under the framework of a bidding round with a low tariff of around US$2.34c/kWh compared with US$2.66c/kWh for its main contender Marubeni Corporation. The US$320m project will be built under the framework of the renewable energy programme executed by state-run REPDO (Renewable Energy Project Development Office).

This article was originally published by Enerdata.