Saudi Arabia leases land for green energy projects

Al-Qassim Region in central Saudi Arabia has signed an investment agreement to lease land to the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) for new renewable energy projects.

The agreement concerns an area of more than 23 million square metres (27.5m sq yd) in Al-Badayea Governorate, which is part of the Al-Qassim Region, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency said on Thursday.

The renewables projects will include generation plants, transmission and steam stations as well as landfills.

The projects are meant to generate electricity from photovoltaic solar and concentrated solar power (CSP), wind energy or waste, the report says.

Saudi Arabia aims to have 27.3 GW of renewable power capacity by 2023, including 20 GW of solar photovoltaic and 7 GW of wind power. However, the kingdom is on track to fall short of these targets if it continues to deploy new capacity at the current pace, according to a recent report by GlobalData.

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