French utility company Engie is eyeing new renewable energy projects in the UAE and Saudi Arabia as the two countries focus on increasing the share of clean energy in their energy mix in the coming years, a top executive of the company told Gulf News in an interview.

“We are fully geared up to answer to this offer. We are more interested in large-scale solar plants like Al Maktoum solar park in Dubai or Sweihan solar plant in Abu Dhabi. We are a big company with big ambitions and looking forward to new projects in these countries,” said Sebastien Arbola, CEO, Middle East, south & central Asia, Turkey of Paris listed Engie at World Future Energy Summit on Wednesday.

The company is planning to bid for 200 megawatts concentrated solar plant in Dubai which is under tendering, he said.

Speaking on Saudi Arabia, he said they already took part in the bidding process for a 100 mw solar plant in the kingdom and are planning to be part of future projects.

“Saudi Arabia has already announced their ambitious plans for renewable energy and we want to be part of that. We are already operating three large gas fired power plants in Saudi Arabia and another one is under construction

Gas-fired power plants

Saudi Arabia would be investing up to $50 billion (Dh183.5 billion) in new renewable projects by 2023, the country’s energy minter Khalid Al Falih said on Monday

In the UAE, the company is closely working with Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority and has five gas-fired power plants in Al Taweelah, Shuweihat, Umm Al Nar and Fujairah. The company is building another one power plant, which is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

With the new plant, the total capacity of the power plants would go up to 10 gigawatts, he said. They also produce 600 million gallons of desalinated water a day.

Overall, Engie has 21 power plants in operation in the GCC region.

“The governments of GCC countries have succeeded in creating a good business environment for a well-established public private partnership for power and water development that can attract significant international investment.

source : gulfnews