The facility - A 1 GW plant at King Salman Energy Park
Insola KSA is building an integrated n-type bifacial IBC solar cell and module manufacturing facility at SPARK, the energy industrial city outside Dhahran. The site is secured, the utilities are defined, and the plant design is drawn from a facility already built and running.
Designed for the operating conditions
A high-tech manufacturing plant in the Eastern Province, making the bifacial modules that perform best under exactly this sun.
1 GW, cells and modules
An integrated plant producing both n-type bifacial IBC cells and the finished modules, at an annual capacity of 1 GW. Making the cell and the module on one site captures the margin on both.
Dedicated substation
The plant runs at industrial scale, so SPARK requires a new 115/13.8 kV high-voltage substation developed for the site. Arup is engaged on the electrical design alongside SPARK.
Industry 4.0 instrumentation
Sensor instrumentation, data analytics and machine learning across the line, for process optimisation, inline quality control and predictive maintenance.
Existing plant design
The plant follows the design principles of the 2.2 GW Kalyon PV facility in Turkey, delivered by RCT Solutions, with the newer polyZEBRA n-type cell in place of p-type PERC.
The site - SPARK, Dhahran
King Salman Energy Park is a 50 km² energy industrial city and a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco. Insola lodged its land application with SPARK in October 2025. Following its assessments, SPARK matched the project to a plot of 93,150.9 m², roughly 9.3 hectares, sized to the requirement Insola had submitted. The site sits 30 km from Dhahran, 60 km from King Fahad International Airport and 70 km from King Abdulaziz Port, with a dry port on site to be served by the GCC Railroad. Land at SPARK is held on long-term Musataha agreement.
- Annual cell and module capacity
- 1 GW
- Plot identified at SPARK
- 9.3 ha
- Potable water at the plot boundary
- 565 m³/day
- Projected project investment
- USD 200m
Utilities - Power and water
SPARK Utilities Company is the single provider for power, water and wastewater, telecoms, gas and waste management across the park. Potable water is available at the boundary of the plot, with capacity to cover the facility’s 565 m³ per day requirement. On power, the plant’s load requires a new 115/13.8 kV high-voltage substation, developed for the site by the project company. Arup is engaged on that work with SPARK. The facility is designed to draw down its own grid consumption over time using roof-mounted generation, and is built to supply the utility-scale solar parks around SPARK, which targets over 50% of the city’s energy demand from renewables by 2030.
Water is recycled on site rather than drawn and discharged: on-site storage, grey-water recycling and treated effluent for irrigation, in line with SPARK’s tenant framework. The plant will be built and operated under SPARK’s health, safety and environmental regime, and through its staged permitting process, from land application and provisional lease through concept and detailed design sign-off to construction permit and occupancy.
Engineering partners
The group works with RCT Solutions, an owner’s engineering and technology integration house for the solar industry, whose reference projects include Kalyon PV in Turkey, the 2.2 GW fully integrated facility that the Insola KSA plant is designed on. The difference at SPARK is the cell: polyZEBRA n-type back contact from ISC Konstanz, in place of the p-type PERC used at Kalyon.
What it builds locally - Manufacturing, skills and supply
The plant makes its own cells rather than importing finished cells to assemble, and it is the first large-scale bifacial IBC cell and module facility in the Middle East. Insola’s case to SPARK rests on job creation, the transfer of specialised PV knowledge and skills education, industrial innovation and manufacturing depth, and clean energy production in the Kingdom. The ISC Konstanz technology transfer covers training of the workforce through to full-capacity ramp-up, on a site where SPARK hosts its own specialised training institutes.
Want the detail behind the plant?
Read the technology the facility is built around, or get in touch.