SUN TO RUN SAUDI OIL RESEARCH

Phoenix Solar builds solar power plant for the Saudi Arabian Oil Company in Riyadh; Saudi Arabia’s largest photovoltaic plant of 3.5 megawatts solar electricity to supply KAPSARC, the world’s largest energy research center
February 16, 2011 (World of Photovoltaics)

"Oman-based Phoenix Solar L.L.C., a subsidiary of Phoenix Solar AG (ISIN DE000A0BVU93), an international photovoltaic system integrator listed on the German TecDAX, is to build a solar park with a peak power of 3.5 megawatts for the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco). Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producing company, commissioned Phoenix Solar last year to install a photovoltaic testing field designed to analyse different module technologies at its headquarters in Dhahran.

"The solar power plant will be built on land where the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) is currently under construction - close to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. KAPSARC itself is the largest energy research centre in the world. The construction of KAPSARC is geared towards achieving LEED Platinum certification. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, is a system which rates green building and sets standards for sustainable building."

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"Together with Naizak Global Engineering Systems, its local project partner in Saudi Arabia, the task of Phoenix Solar will be to design and build the grid-connected ground-mounted photovoltaic plant by the end of September 2011. Phoenix Solar’s principal is M.R. Khathlan (MRK), a Saudi company which, in its capacity as general contractor, will design and build the electricity and water supply of KAPSARC.

"The photovoltaic project was awarded through an international bidding procedure. Alongside Phoenix Solar’s cutting-edge competence in power plant construction and the presence of the company in the Gulf region, a determinant factor for winning the contract was the experience gathered by Phoenix Solar from the test facility…"