China’s Huawei Digital Power will build a 1,300 megawatt hour (MWh) battery energy storage system (Bess) at the Red Sea project in Saudi Arabia.

The Chinese company Sepco 3, which is the engineering, purchasing and design contractor (EPC) for the Red Sea multi-utilities package, awarded the contract to Huawei Digital Power.

It is understood that the contract involves the development of 400MW solar cell capacity (PV).

The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC) awarded the contract to develop all of its public utility infrastructure to Saudi-based tool developer Acwa Power on November 16, 2020.

At that time, it was reported that the infrastructure would include 210 MW of renewable energy using wind and solar turbines in the first phase, three plants for reverse osmosis of seawater, a solid waste management center, an innovative wastewater treatment plant and district cooling.

The project is a 100% private non-profit project, where the customer does not invest any of their equity in developing the infrastructure.

Instead, TRSDC undertook to purchase its tools from Acwa Power and its consortium partners for 25 years.

It is a single contract, under which Acwa Power will form partnerships with other investors and will appoint EPC contractors for parts of the planned multiple tools.

Storage of battery energy

The contract, which uses a design, construction, operation and transmission model, involves building the world’s largest battery energy storage facility of 1,000 MWh.

This solution will enable development to be driven 100% by renewable energy and remain completely off-grid.

The planned facility at the Red Sea Project overshadows current world record holders, including Tesla’s 730MWh Bess facility, which is under construction at a transformer station in California, USA.

The tool infrastructure will support the first phase of development, which will be completed in 2022. It includes 16 hotels and an international airport.

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