Chairman's message

“As a proud Saudi company, we are committed to leading the country’s energy transition ambition of adding 103 GW of renewable power generation by 2030”

Dear stakeholders,

Allow me to present ACWA Power’s Integrated Annual Report for the year 2024.

2024 was the Company's twentieth anniversary, wherein and after the blessing of the Almighty, we accelerated on our growth journey and sped past a number of milestones, in lockstep with the trajectory of Saudi Vision 2030, under the visionary leadership of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al‑Saud, the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al‑Saud, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

As a proud Saudi company, we are committed to leading the country’s energy transition ambition of adding 103 GW of renewable power generation by 2030 by developing 70% of this ambition under the Public Investment Fund (PIF)'s mandate. We are also expanding within our developing economies markets, including China, Central and Southeast Asia and Africa, while building our new green hydrogen bridge with Europe.

2024 was the Company's twentieth anniversary, wherein and after the blessing of the Almighty, we accelerated on our growth journey and sped past a number of milestones, in lockstep with the trajectory of Saudi Vision 2030, under the visionary leadership of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al‑Saud, the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al‑Saud, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

As a proud Saudi company, we are committed to leading the country’s energy transition ambition of adding 103 GW of renewable power generation by 2030 by developing 70% of this ambition under the Public Investment Fund (PIF)'s mandate. We are also expanding within our developing economies markets, including China, Central and Southeast Asia and Africa, while building our new green hydrogen bridge with Europe.

ACWA Power, moving with speed and momentum

From a humble yet highly ambitious startup two decades ago, ACWA Power retains the same level of drive, energy and desire for change. We aim to have USD 250 billion of assets under management by 2030 and we are now better able than ever to take the big steps necessary. I feel a sense of excitement around our Company. The faster, bigger, and better we grow, the more we can benefit all our stakeholders.

During such a dynamic period we have stayed true to our values and our objective: to develop public‑private partnership projects in utility‑scale electricity generation and water desalination, delivering power and water reliably, responsibly and at the lowest possible cost.

We are now the largest private producer of desalinated water in the world, a leader in renewable energy, and first mover in at‑scale green hydrogen production. We have made such remarkable progress thanks to the entrepreneurial skills and unwavering commitment of the ACWA Power family, reinforced by our valued partners and suppliers, who bring such dedication, innovation and ingenuity to our 94 projects. I cannot overemphasise the importance of our blue‑sky thinking, calculated risk‑taking, and working from first principles, that have led to such a series of breakthroughs in technology and production processes, giving us speed‑to‑market and world‑beating low tariffs. As we expand internationally and grow our team, we are preserving this culture to ensure that we remain fundamentally creative in everything we do.

Laying the foundation for our ambitious growth plan toward 2030

Last year marked exceptional growth for ACWA Power, setting the stage for an exciting 2025. We marked our entry into China with our first projects which are on track to achieve over 1 GW of renewable energy capacity. Across our markets, we have over USD 30 billion at total project cost currently under construction, a capacity equivalent to the previous 10 years combined. And we now have investments of USD 5.9 billion in projects in Africa, confirming that ACWA Power is the continent's leading private renewable energy investor.

In Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Energy has significantly upscaled the country’s energy transition ambitions for 2030 by more than doubling the renewable power projects to 103 GW and announcing aggressive natural gas transition plans. This strategic expansion further strengthens our role as a key enabler of Saudi Vision 2030 and reinforces our commitment to accelerating the energy transition.

We have equally ambitious expansion goals for our desalinated water operations, too, across developing economies, given that 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometres of a coastline. ACWA Power is responsible for around a third of the desalinated water capacity in KSA, the UAE and Bahrain and 17% of the capacity in Oman. Through our ingenuity and leadership in reverse osmosis technology, we have achieved remarkable efficiency gains, reducing specific power consumption to produce one cubic meter of desalinated water at our water plants by 87% over the last decade. We have also set a global benchmark with the lowest water tariff and proudly operate the world's largest reverse osmosis plant.

This strong momentum extends beyond power generation and water desalination, as we strategically expand into energy storage. Our battery energy storage systems (BESS) have grown to a capacity of 5.3 GWh through landmark projects, including the world’s largest offgrid capacity, at our Red Sea project; Central Asia’s largest BESS at our Tashkent project; and a groundbreaking project in Morocco, big enough to power a new electric vehicle battery gigafactory.

Our expansion into energy storage highlights our broader commitment to a sustainable future, where we also aim to be one of the top three green hydrogen producers globally. Our flagship NEOM Green Hydrogen Company, which we are developing together with our partners, is almost 80% complete.The first phase of our Uzbekistan green hydrogen project is under construction, with additional projects planned across Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Tunisia. Through our partnership with SEFE in Germany, we also aim to supply Europe with 200,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030.

Growing our business at a local level

Rather than evolving into a large centralised, top‑down corporation we have embraced a regional strategy which includes the appointment of four key regional managers, who have a grassroots approach to developing our business.

Beyond leadership, we remain committed to hiring and training local people wherever we operate, and we encourage our EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) contractors and OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to do the same.

One of my proudest associations is with the Energy and Water Academy (EWA), a non‑profit vocational training institute in Rabigh, KSA, which offers technical training across 18 diverse industrial specialties, including safety, renewable energy, and water desalination, to the young men and women of KSA, and has been doing so since 2009. To date, EWA has graduated over 15,000 young Saudis, many of whom have gone on to contribute significantly to our industry, both at ACWA Power and beyond. Our other key educational initiative, the Shirin Energy College, Uzbekistan, is also flourishing.

As we continue to grow, scaling up our team, in terms of both headcount and professional expertise, is critical. To support this, we have refined our people strategy, ramped up investment in talent development, and reinforced our commitment to an open and inclusive culture across our organisation.

Our aim is to be the best employer, preferred partner and thought leader in our industry.

The Board

I would like to acknowledge the leadership and the contribution the Board has made to our progress during 2024.

Following the end of the Board’s three‑year tenure in January 2025, ACWA Power’s shareholders have elected a new Board of Directors for the next four years. My esteemed colleagues, Abdullah AlRowais, Madelyn Antonic and Li Ping, left the Board, and I would like to give my heartfelt thanks for their wise counsel over the past three years, as well as wishing them well in their future activities. At the same time, I was delighted to welcome our new independent members, Khaled AlKhattaf, Sheila Khama and Liming Chen, who bring a wealth of experience and sound judgment to the Board and who will be helping to steer us on our rapid growth journey.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all our stakeholders who have contributed so much to our progress, in particular, our esteemed leaders, The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al‑Saud, and HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al‑Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of KSA, for their visionary leadership.

I thank HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al‑Saud, Minister of Energy, HE Khalid Al‑Falih, Minister of Investment, and their respective ministries and associated enterprises, as well as HE Yasir Othman Al‑Rumayyan and the PIF, for their continuing support. I would also like to thank the governments of the 12 other countries where we operate, as well as our offtakers, EPC contractors, suppliers, advisers, and financial partners.

In conclusion, on behalf of the Board of Directors I would like to thank the whole ACWA Power family for another year of dedication, imagination and hard work. We are very much on course to realising our ambitions for 2030.