In a March 28 article, Bloomberg wrote that Saudi Arabia and SoftBank Group Corp. had signed a memorandum of understanding to build a record-shattering 200 gigawatt solar power development in the Arabian desert.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, “known for backing ambitious endeavors with flair,” Bloomberg said, unveiled the project the day before in New York at a ceremony with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The US$200 billion project would be some 100 times larger than the next biggest proposed development and more than double what the global photovoltaic industry supplied last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The investment is apparently part of the new Saudi ruler’s plan to diversity the country’s oil-heavy economy.
An article the same day in Greentech Media cast doubt on the realism of the announcement, noting that the memorandum “contains few concrete details on how the partners will secure the massive amount of debt required,” or what would be involved in scaling manufacturing capacity, or how the increase in generation capacity would be handled in a country that had less than 50 megawatts of solar PV installed as of 2017.
“Saudi Arabia and SoftBank have a history of making grand announcements that haven’t panned out,” the GTM article notes. “In 2012, Saudi Arabia announced plans to build more than 40 gigawatts of solar PV and concentrating solar thermal power plants by 2032. However, the plan saw no action from the government, and was scaled back to 9 gigawatts in its “Vision 2030” plan released last year.”
Original stories here and here.