ACWA Power and Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) have selected Nextracker, a leading global provider of intelligent solar tracker and software solutions, to provide its all-terrain tracker NX Horizon-XTR for a 1.17 GW installation at Al Kahfah Solar Power Plant.
Al Kahfah is one of the three major solar PV Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects being led by Badeel and ACWA Power. This solar plant will provide clean energy to the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) as part of the renewable energy projects essential to meet the targets of Vision 2030 and the Ministry of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Program to increase renewables in the nation’s energy mix to 50 percent by 2030.
The Al Kahfah project will deploy Nextracker’s NX Horizon-XTR smart solar tracker systems. The area the solar plant will occupy is dominated by a hilly, hard-soil land surface that would typically require a combination of explosives and grading machines to flatten the land the new solar tracking system will cover.
Marco Arcelli CEO – ACWA Power
“We are looking forward to a successful commissioning of this important new plant to ensure ongoing delivery of reliable, low-cost clean energy for families and businesses. Our partnerships with technology providers such as Nextracker are essential in supporting our role in Saudi Arabia’s ambitious National Renewable Energy Plan to increase the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix to 50 percent by 2030.”
First delivered in 2018 and proven on dozens of utility-scale projects successfully operating around the world, Nextracker’s all-terrain solar tracker system can conform to the natural terrain to reduce the need for costly land grading while significantly reducing environmental impact.
As part of its support to ACWA Power and the Al Kahfah project, Nextracker has extended its domestic content and capacity development program in the Kingdom. Nextracker has engaged a range of local partners in providing raw material and manufacturing support for its trackers at plants across the region.
Dan Shugar, the Nextracker founder and CEO, said that, “Our partnership with these two industry leaders has contributed greatly to Nextracker’s local commitment with over 10 GW of solar trackers already installed or under fulfillment across the MEIA region’s rapidly expanding solar energy market. We are confident that Nextracker will contribute greatly to the Al Kahfah plant—yet another example of Saudi government leadership in the energy transition and to the dominance of solar technology driving the transition to renewables in the region.”
