Saudi Arabia has cast light on its $200bn (£141bn) plans to cut its reliance on oil by rolling out the world’s most ambitious solar power project through a deal with SoftBank.

The agreement will drive investment in a series of solar parks across the kingdom to be built by 2030, capable of generating enough power for 150 million homes.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman described the oil-rich nation’s “bold, risky” move into renewable power as a “huge step in human history”.

In a midnight press briefing in New York the Crown Prince said that the kingdom will match $1bn in financing put forward by SoftBank to begin the first phase of the project later this year which aims to develop 7.2GW of installed solar power by 2019 with the help of debt financing.

By 2030 the kingdom expects solar panels with a capacity of 200GW to roll out across the Saudi Arabia, which is more than triple the UK’s total installed power capacity.

SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son told reporters that the solar push is “by far the largest solar power project ever”.

“You have never seen something of this scale,” he is reported as saying.