New 1,390-MW Power Plant To Be Built In Saudi Arabia; Mostly Natural Gas But With Nod To Solar -- January 4, 2016

GE lands $1 billion contract to build new Saudi Arabian power plant.

GE will manage the construction of a new power plant for Saudi Arabia capable of generating 1,390 megawatts of electricity (enough to power 500,000 Saudi homes).

The new plant will be a state of the art facility, capable of generating power from a number of different fuel sources including various grades of natural gas as well as solar electricity. Included in the plans are four F-class heavy duty gas turbines as well as one steam turbine alongside an array of solar panels. GE expects the plant to be fully operational in 48 months.

This is an interesting development in light of this data point posted some time ago:

Saudi Arabia recently announced a $109 billion solar energy program to run their desalination plants.

But then, out of the blue, on May 22, 2015, the Guardian reports in passing that Saudi has decided to delay that program for eight years. (If that link is broken, see this post.)

The promoter of that $109 billion solar energy program was non-US.

A lot of story lines.