KSA’s Red Sea Global is giving us a zero-carbon tourist destination: Red Sea Global (RSG) — a global multi-project developer fully owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund the Public Investment Fund (PIF) — said it has entered into a 25-year concession agreement with French power giant EDF and the UAE’s state-owned renewables player Masdar on a multi-utility infrastructure facility to service its ultra-luxury resort destination Amaala on the country’s northwestern coast, according to a joint statement.

What we know: Amaala will be fully powered by solar energy like its sister destination The Red Sea, saving c. 500k tons of CO2 emissions per year. The new facility will be home to an optimized off-grid renewable energy system supplying solar power with a 700 MWh battery energy storage facility, a fully powered RO desalination plant with a capacity of 37 mn liters of water per day, and wastewater treatment plant, the statement notes. The resort’s renewable supply system will have the capacity to generate up to 410k MWh per annum, which is enough to power 10k homes for an entire year. The first phase is set to welcome its first guests in early 2025.

About the contract: The independent public-private partnership (PPP) contract will cover the design, construction, and operation of the systems providing utilities along with associated networks and infrastructure, the statement read. The agreement between the three parties will have the option to be extended and includes financing, engineering, development, construction, operation, maintenance, and transfer of the multi-utility infrastructure facility.

Building on a previous blueprint: “The project follows the template for success provided by The Red Sea, where we recently completed the build of five solar farms, procuring a destination-wide utility system that enables us to operate with no connection to the national grid,” said John Pagano, Group CEO of Red Sea Global.

It’s been an eventful summer for RSG: The PIF-owned developer installed 750k solar panels and five solar stations for the first phase of the kingdom’s luxury The Red Sea project last July. The resort destination will have a net-carbon USD 1.5 bn multi-utility system providing renewable energy, potable water, wastewater treatment, district cooling, and solid waste treatment for 16 hotels, an international airport, and related infrastructure for the project’s first phase. RSG also recently developed with Kuwait-based telecom company Zain the world’s first carbon-neutral 5G network at the Six Senses Southern Dunes resort at RSG’s The Red Sea project in the kingdom.