RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s utility company ACWA Power has received a commercial operation certificate for the third phase of the Sudair solar project. The company told Tadawul that it received the certification from Saudi Power Procurement Co., the principal energy buyer in the Kingdom. The bourse filing also revealed that the third phase entails a 25 percent augmentation to the first and second phases of the 1,500 MW plant capacity. This aligns with the company’s mission to reliably deliver electricity and desalinated water at the lowest possible cost. Moreover, ACWA Power is expecting the financial impact of this move to be reflected in the first quarter of 2024. In October, the energy company received a commercial operation certification for the second phase of the project. ACWA Power received the same credential for the project’s first phase a month earlier. Once completed, the SR3.5 billion ($932.9 million) initiative will power 185,000 homes and balance around 2.9 million tons of annual emissions. The Sudair solar power project is 50 percent backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund and 35 percent by ACWA Power. The initiative, located in Saudi Arabia’s Sudair Industrial City, is on track to become one of the world’s largest single-contracted solar PV undertakings, according to the company’s website. It was the first under the PIF’s renewable energy program and achieved the second lowest cost in the world for solar PV electricity production. In August, an ACWA Power-led consortium secured financial closure for Al-Shuaibah solar projects with an investment of $2.37 billion. ACWA Power CEO Marco Arcelli said in a press release at the time: “Securing financing for this groundbreaking project marks a significant step toward achieving Saudi Arabia’s clean energy goals, in alignment with the National Renewable Energy Program, which aims to generate 50 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030.” According to the news release at the time, the $1.63 billion in senior debt financing for this plant includes a $450 million Saudi riyal-denominated loan from the National Development Fund on behalf of the National Infrastructure Fund. A $1.18 billion commercial facility provided by a consortium of local, regional, and international banks is also included in the funding.