(Bloomberg) -- French utility Engie SA is seeking to gain foothold in renewable energy markets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are holding big tenders for wind and solar farms to diversify their energy sources.

“The Gulf region has a serious potential,” with “very large auctions,” Francois-Xavier Boul, Engie’s managing director for renewables in the Middle East and North Africa regions, said in an interview on Thursday. Winning projects in the region is part of Engie’s strategy to accelerate its growth in renewables, he said.    

The French company, which already operates gas-fired power plants in the Gulf, faces fierce competition from energy rivals that have been tapping the region’s growing demand for clean power. The Saudi kingdom is building new industries to create jobs and develop an economy that’s less dependent on hydrocarbons as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan.

Engie is preparing to bid for four solar projects totaling 3 gigawatts and for 1.5 gigawatts of wind projects under the so-called round six tenders in Saudi Arabia, Boul said. Competition has been “aggressive,” and the company unsuccessfully bid for 3.7 gigawatts of solar projects in the kingdom last year, he said. The company is also waiting for the result of a tender for 1.5 gigawatts of solar projects in Abu Dhabi.

The French utility has been more successful so far in Egypt, where it’s part of a consortium that owns a 262.5-megawatt wind farm along the Gulf of Suez. The firms just signed on a 150-megawatt extension of another wind park nearby. When completed next year, the 650-megawatt wind facility should become Africa’s largest.

Engie and its partners are also seeking to build a 1-gigawatt wind project in Egypt. It aims to finalize the project’s contracts next year, with a view to build it by 2028, Boul said. 

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