Saudi Arabia and Japanese powerhouse SoftBank announced today they will build a solar power plant so huge — 200 gigawatts — that it will exceed the amount of solar power installed in the entire world in 2017 by 30%.
Once completed, it will triple the amount of electricity generated by Saudi Arabia, which currently gets all its power from burning oil and natural gas. The project is projected to cost $200 billion.
In addition to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, other fund participants include Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment, which has committed $15 billion, Apple, Qualcomm, Foxconn Technology, and Sharp Corp.
The Vision Fund is expected to be a major participant in the Saudi/SoftBank solar power plant project. No starting date for the installation has been announced, although the parties say they have the plans for it in place.
The project is expected to create 100,000 jobs during the construction phase.