Saudi renewables developer Acwa Power, in a 13 November filing to the kingdom’s Tadawul exchange, announced the “start of commercial operation” at the 600MW Al Shuaiba-1 solar PV plant. The plant was connected to the grid, and as such included in the Ministry of Energy’s capacity figures, from Q2 this year, part of an overall hike in the kingdom’s renewables capacity from 2.8GW to 4.1GW in the first half of 2024 (MEES, 28 June). Al-Shuaibah-1 was awarded in 2021 and holds the global record for the lowest levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of US¢1.04/KWh (MEES, 16 April 2021). Latest LCOE pricing offers, for Round 5 of the kingdom’s National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), are higher than this, but still highly competitive from a global perspective (MEES, 25 October).