‘Green’ Belt and Road: China to Build Solar and Wind Plants in Saudi Arabia

Chinese green energy companies Jinko Solar, TCL Zhonghuan Renewable Energy Technology, and Sungrow announced on Tuesday they have signed major deals with Saudi Arabia to build wind, solar, and energy storage projects. 

Chinese state media reported the billion-dollar deals as triumphs, while the South China Morning Post (SCMP) introduced a note of skepticism, describing the Chinese-Saudi joint ventures as “the latest in a series of investments by Chinese clean energy developers to globalize their manufacturing bases as they are struggling with a price war and worsening oversupply.”

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“Clean energy developers in China, the world’s largest wind and solar market, view the Middle East and Southeast Asia as their next gold mines given tariff increases imposed by the US and anti-subsidy investigations launched by the European Union,” the SCMP noted.

Jinko Solar’s wholly owned Middle Eastern subsidiary signed a contract with Saudi Arabia’s Renewable Energy Localization Company (RELC), itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, to build a 10-gigawatt solar farm worth about $985 million. 

TCL Zhonghuan is planning to build a factory to manufacture solar panel components in Saudi Arabia at a cost of $2.85 billion, while Sungrow plans to partner with Saudi Arabia’s ALGIHAZ Holding investment company to build a 7.8-gigawatt energy storage project. The storage plant is intended to help stabilize the Saudi power grid.

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China’s state-run Global Times reported that on the very same day, “two ETFs (exchange-traded funds) tracking large Saudi companies, including Saudi Aramco, made successful debuts on the Chinese A-share market on Tuesday, and their values rose by the daily limit of 10 percent, with a premium of more than 6 percent.”

Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that China’s second-largest wind turbine manufacturer, Envision, is close to reaching a deal with Saudi Arabia to build a new manufacturing plant in the Kingdom, while China’s Hainan Mining Company recent signed a memorandum of understanding with a Saudi investment company to produce lithium salt for batteries.