ACWA Power has agreed to deploy wind energy and battery capacity to help power what is claimed will be the Middle East and Africa region’s ‘first battery gigafactory.’
The Saudi Arabian power producer and developer has signed a joint development agreement with Gotion Power, Chinese battery manufacturer Gotion High-Tech’s subsidiary in Morocco, for a 500MW wind power plant with 2,000MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) technology.
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The project will feed energy to Gotion Power’s new electric vehicle (EV) battery gigafactory in the northwestern Moroccan city of Kenitra. The renewables-plus-storage plant has an expected investment cost of around US$800 million, ACWA Power said.
ACWA Power announced the Gotion agreement late last month, along with two financing deals and an R&D collaborative effort, that the developer signed at a recent event hosted by the Future Investment Initiative, a non-profit organisation run by Saudi Arabia’s PIF sovereign wealth fund.
The deals have a claimed total value of US$1.78 billion, and include a US$690 million framework agreement with the National Bank of Kuwait for financing ACWA Power projects in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
There was also a US$240 million equity bridge loan agreement with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) to finance two solar-plus-storage projects in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, the company also signed a cooperation agreement with Lujiazui Administrative Bureau, a state agency overseeing the development of a new financial services hub in Shanghai, China, for the construction of an R&D centre in Shanghai.
The centre would focus on advancing solar, wind, energy storage, hydrogen and desalination technologies and cost around US$54 million, ACWA Power said.
First EV battery gigafactory for Middle East and Africa
In June, the Moroccan government held a ceremony with Gotion High-Tech for the signing of a strategic investment agreement between the manufacturer and the state regarding its factory.
Presided over by head of government Aziz Akhannouch and held in the capital Rabat, the agreement covered the establishment of a “complete industrial ecosystem for electric battery manufacturing in Kenitra,” the government said.
The factory would require around MAD12.8 billion (US$1.3 billion) investment, with a planned 20GWh annual production capacity for EV batteries, creating 17,000 direct and indirect jobs.
It could in future be ramped up to 100GWh annual production capacity, the government said. In ACWA Power’s announcement last month, the developer said Gotion—which counts automaker Volkswagen among its investors—planned to have the factory online in the first half of 2026.
The Moroccan government noted that this would be the first battery gigafactory in the entire Middle East and Africa region, supporting the country’s shift to electrification of transport and creating economic opportunities.
In mid-October, rival Chinese battery manufacturer Hithium announced a joint venture (JV) to establish a battery factory in Saudi Arabia with 5GWh annual production capacity.
Hithium, which only makes products for the stationary BESS sector and not also EV batteries, has formed the JV Hithium MANAT, with Saudi engineering solutions company MANAT.
The battery factory would feed growing demand for storage solutions in the Middle East, Hithium’s regional general manager for the Middle East and Africa region Sean Sun said, although a timeline for its expected construction has not been given.
Uzbekistan
In March 2023, ACWA Power signed agreements with the government of Uzbekistan to develop 1.4GW of solar PV and 1.2GW of BESS projects in the Central Asian country.
This included the signing of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with grid operator JSC Uzbek National Electricity Grids for the two solar projects and three BESS projects the portfolio will comprise. The agreements cover 25-year terms for power generation and 10-year terms for the battery storage projects, with ACWA Power owning the portfolio.
The IFC Islamic Equity Bridge Loan (EBL) just announced will support the construction and operation of two solar PV plants, each of 500MW generation capacity and two 334MW BESS installations in Sazagan, in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand region.
ACWA Power expects the Sazagan 1 and 2 projects to come online in the third quarter of 2025 and then the fourth quarter of 2026 respectively.
Uzbekistan is aiming to deploy 25GW of solar PV and wind by 2030. In addition to its agreement with Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, the country’s government also has a joint development agreement with the UAE’s Masdar for 2GW of wind energy and 1,150MWh of battery storage.
In May, the IFC and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) were among financial institutions to agree a US$159 million package to support a Masdar-developed 250MW solar and 63MW BESS project. It is set to be Central Asia’s first-ever grid-connected renewable energy project to include battery storage, although a timeline for its completion was not given at the time.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) committed up to US$229 million financing towards another ACWA Power solar-plus-storage project in Uzbekistan. The 200MW solar, 500MWh BESS project will be built in Uzbekistan’s Tashkent region, as reported by Energy-Storage.news in July.
