The Saudi group announces the production of 1 gigawatt from renewable energy sources as part of a $50 billion Chinese investment

Major Saudi energy company ACWA Power announced that it is developing more than 1 gigawatt of renewable energy projects in China. The portfolio includes solar and wind energy facilities that will be jointly owned by ACWA Power and Chinese renewable energy developers, the company said in reports published on December 31. ACWA Power confirmed in a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) that the projects are located throughout China and are in advanced stages of development. Yunhe Liu, who leads Aqua’s operations in China, said earlier in December that the company plans to invest up to $50 billion to build renewable energy projects in that country by the end of this decade. Liu said Aqua envisions up to 20 gigawatts of renewable energy generation capacity, along with the development of green hydrogen projects. “We have an ambitious goal of investing up to $50 billion in green energy, renewable technologies, green hydrogen, and desalination projects by 2030,” Liu said in an interview with Bloomberg News Service. “Our goal is to reach 1.3 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity in China by the end of this year.” ACWA Power cooperates with Chinese companies in projects in China and other countries. The company is developing a wind energy project in Uzbekistan with China Southern Grid International. The Chinese State Energy Investment Corporation is working with ACWA on energy projects in Saudi Arabia. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Riyadh in 2022 launched an economic cooperation program between China and Saudi Arabia. Officials said that bilateral trade between the two countries in 2023 amounted to $107.23 billion, as China exported goods to Saudi Arabia worth $42.86 billion, while it imported Saudi products worth $64.37 billion, mostly crude oil and petrochemicals. The latest figures, as of August 2024, show that trade between the two countries amounted to about $71 billion this year. China is Saudi Arabia’s leading direct investor in new projects, with much of that money supporting solar, wind and battery storage facilities, officials said on Tuesday. —Darrell Proctor He is a senior editor at POWER.