Saudi water and renewable energy developer Acwa Power will “soon” sign a contract to develop a 1GW utility scale solar plant in Iraq’s Najaf province according to Iraq’s acting minister of electricity Adel Kareem. The minister’s comments came as he attended the 5th round of Iraqi-Saudi Energy Committee talks in Riyadh on 24 October. The committee includes Iraq’s ministries of oil, electricity and industry in addition to the National Investment Commission (NIC), and is part of the Iraq-Saudi Coordination Council.
Saudi Arabia has long held out the prospect of investing in Iraq’s power sector, and specifically in renewables. In 2019, Iraq’s electricity ministry signed two separate MoUs with the Saudi ministry of energy and Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) paving the way for future electricity grid interconnection as well as potential finance for renewable energy projects. Subsequently, MEES understands that a consulting firm was hired in mid to late 2019 to conduct a technical feasibility study on grid interconnection. (CONTINUED - 1346 WORDS)
