ABU DHABI: Middle East’s largest wind farm and the first in Saudi Arabia has produced its first carbon-free megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy.
The $500 million, 400-megawatt (MW) utility-scale wind power project, Dumat Al Jandal, is being developed by a consortium led by EDF Renewables and Masdar, local media reports said.
Once complete the farm will power up to 70,000 Saudi households and save 988,000 tons of CO2 emissions as part of the kingdom’s climate goals besides creating more than 600 local jobs during the construction phase.
The reports said the project achieved a major health and safety milestone by securing 1.8 million man-hours without a single lost-time injury (LTI) as a result of the strict health and safety procedures on site.
Each of the total 99 wind turbines generates 4.2 MW of energy. The construction of the farm started in September 2019 and the wind turbine erection works are near completion, the reports said.