NREP Round 7 Saudi Arabia Auction: A Bold 2026 Path to Award 14 GW of Renewable Capacity

The phrase nrep round 7 saudi arabia auction sits inside a fast-moving renewables story. Saudi Arabia’s solar market growth has been led by gigawatt-sized utility-scale projects. Among the projects to come online last year were three belonging to Riyadh-based developer ACWA Power, totaling 2.79 GW of new operational capacity. GlobalData also says cumulative solar capacity increased from 4,665 MW at the end of 2024 to an estimated 12,465 MW by the end of last year. With total renewables capacity standing at around 13 GW, solar is described as the dominant form of renewables in the country.

Saudi Arabia’s National Renewable Energy Program has also been awarding large blocks of capacity through successive phases. The sixth phase concluded last year and awarded 3 GW of solar. It included a project won at the second-lowest levelized cost of electricity for solar energy in history, as referenced in the coverage. Separately, the Saudi Press Agency report referenced an award package where Saudi Power Procurement Company awarded five projects with a total capacity of 4.5 GW, comprising one wind power project and four solar projects, with total estimated investment of $2.4 billion (9 billion Saudi riyals).

What NREP Round 7 Covers So Far

Round 7 is already underway. Reporting states the seventh round has already kicked off, covering 3.1 GW across four solar projects. That Round 7 start matters because it lands in a year-by-year growth context where GlobalData expects around 5.2 GW of solar to be added this year and 9.6 GW to be added in 2027, taking cumulative solar capacity to 27.3 GW by the end of next year. These figures frame Round 7 as part of a broader procurement rhythm rather than a one-off event.

Longer-range forecasts in the same analysis point to even larger annual additions later on. The consultancy forecasts annual solar additions between 12 GW and 14 GW for the years 2028 to 2035. It says this would take cumulative solar capacity past 50 GW in 2029 to 67.2 GW by the end of the decade. The trajectory would see the 100 GW threshold surpassed in 2033, growing to 129.7 GW by 2035. Those projections help explain why a 2026 plan to award 14 GW of renewable capacity fits the scale of market expectations cited in the sources.

At the same time, the analysis flags a pacing challenge relative to an official ambition. GlobalData’s review notes that the growth trajectory falls behind the pace required to reach a target of 130 GW of renewable power capacity by 2030, as set in the most recent version of Saudi Arabia Vision 2030. To reach that target, it says the country would need to add over 23 GW of renewables annually. In practical terms, that gap puts more weight on each procurement step, including the nrep round 7 saudi arabia auction and any 2026 award pipeline targeting 14 GW of renewables.