Riyadh, (IINA) : Saudi Arabia has invited investors to submit requests to qualify for the first round of its $30-$50 billion National Renewable Energy Program by March 20, Arabian Business reported Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia is targeting 9.5 GW of renewable energy by 2023 in line with Vision 2030, an economic reform plan launched last year to diversify the economy beyond oil. The renewable program involves an investment of between $30 billion to $50 billion by 2023. For the first round, the kingdom will develop a 300-megawatt solar PV plant in Sakaka, the Al-Jouf Province in the north.

It will also build a 400 MW wind project in Midyan in the northwest. The projects will be backed by 25-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) for solar PV and 20-year PPAs for wind, the energy ministry said in a statement.The government will announce pre-qualified bidders by April 10.

The Ministry of Energy added that the process “is open to any company or consortium of companies with the technical and financial capabilities to execute projects of this scale.”

“It is our goal to make the National Renewable Energy Program among the most attractive, competitive, and well-executed government renewable energy investment programs in the world, and we have all the necessary infrastructure in place to ensure that is the case,” Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said in a statement carried by SPA.

Earlier this month, the energy ministry said it created The Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO), a unit of the ministry to oversee the deployment of clean energy.