China Solar Firms, Saudis to Build $3B Worth of Projects

Two Chinese solar firms signed deals worth some $3 billion to build plants in Saudi Arabia, highlighting the oil-rich kingdom’s campaign to boost renewable power production.

TCL Zhonghuan Renewable Energy Technology Co., the world’s second-largest maker of solar wafers, said on Tuesday it would partner with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund and Vision Industries Co. on a $2.08 billion plant.

And Chinese solar panel giant Jinko Solar Co. agreed with PIF on a joint venture worth about $985 million. Vision Industries, a privately owned renewable-energy manufacturing company, will also be a shareholder in the JV.

China’s clean energy firms have been looking to Saudi Arabia to globalize their manufacturing bases as they come under unprecedented margin pressure at home and trade tensions worsen with the US and its allies. 

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng vowed to deepen energy, trade and finance cooperation with Saudi Arabia at a meeting last week in Beijing with Yasir Al Rumayyan, governor of PIF.

Bloomberg News reported earlier that Saudi Arabia and China’s second-largest wind turbine manufacturer, Envision Energy Co., are close to a deal to develop a new plant in the Middle Eastern nation.

Also on Tuesday, solar equipment giant Sungrow Power Supply Co. signed a deal with Saudi investment company Algihaz Holding for a storage project. The investment details of that pact weren’t provided.

And Hainan Mining Co. inked a memorandum of understanding with Ajlan & Bros Holding Group on potential production of lithium salt used in battery production.