Gas power plant in Al Madinah al Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia. Approximate location 23.98, 38.257.
GasAl Madinah al MunawwarahSaudi Arabia
YANBU (ARAM) is a 82 MW gas power plant in Al Madinah al Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia. It is operated by Saudi Aramco. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 93k homes (estimated). It ranks #134 of 156 Saudi Arabia power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2005, it is around 21 years old — relatively modern. In context, gas supplies about 63.3% of Saudi Arabia's electricity; the national grid averages 692 gCO₂/kWh (2.2% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1030721.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is the current source-record value. A 2026 tracker candidate lists 3,135 MW for Yanbu 3 power plant, but it is not used as the public primary value until scope is verified (unit vs operating vs installed/project total).
Capacity claim grade: B_SCOPE_PARENT_COMPLEX - recommended action: build_parent_complex_model - confidence: not_comparable_without_scope. This follows a claim-based data model: value + scope + source + confidence, rather than silently overwriting records.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000408049); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 82 MW, YANBU (ARAM) is below the median gas plant in Saudi Arabia (497 MW). Gas plants burn natural gas either in open-cycle turbines for fast peaking, or in combined-cycle units that recover exhaust heat in an HRSG to reach roughly 55–62% efficiency — the cleanest-burning fossil option.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Saudi Aramco. All plants by this company →
This gas plant burns natural gas in a turbine — often in a combined-cycle setup — to generate electricity. It sits in a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 24.0°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
A gas turbine here also runs ~9% below its ISO (15°C) rating at this annual mean (typical CCGT curve, estimate).
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #68 largest gas power plant of 71 in Saudi Arabia by capacity.
Saudi Arabia has 71 gas power plants in this dataset, together about 89,013 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 23.98, 38.257 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
YANBU (ARAM) is a 82 MW source-record gas power plant in Al Madinah al Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia, commissioned in 2005.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 92,918 homes (estimated).
YANBU (ARAM) is operated by Saudi Aramco.
