Ambitious energy transition projects in Saudi Arabia

“Saudi Arabia is making notable progress with its plans to develop clean energy and reduce emissions,” Denisa Fainis, general secretary of the Middle East Solar Industry Association, told Arab News.

“The climate measures will go hand in hand with tending to the continued high demand for fossil fuels. As the world’s largest oil exporter, more than half of Saudi Arabia’s revenues come from its fossil fuel sector.”

Saudi Arabia hopes to attract an increasing number of investors and developers to participate in massive projects in the renewable-energy sector huge projects.

The Kingdom’s US$500 billion NEOM megaproject will play a substantial role in efforts to diversify the Saudi economy while drawing exclusively from clean energy resources.

It is estimated that NEOM will require between 20 and 40 GW of solar and wind power capacity to meet its energy requirements when it becomes operational in 2025.

Authorities in the Kingdom are planning several other projects in areas such as the Red Sea, Madinah, Qurayyat, Jeddah and Wadi Al-Dawasir to help reach the national target of net-zero emissions by 2060.

Significantly, many nations in the region view the energy transition as an opportunity for economic growth and the creation of jobs, including the potential to manufacture solar-power components locally.

The Gulf region obviously enjoys a geographical advantage in the solar-energy sector, thanks to plentiful sunshine and its proximity to Africa, Europe and other countries in the Middle East, which positions it to become a long-term energy exporter.

In the five years since announcing their Vision 2030 economic-reforms agenda, Saudi authorities have been forging ahead quickly with plans for the development of the renewable-energy sector. The Kingdom has set for itself the target of generating half of its power needs from renewable sources by 2030 — that is, 60 GW of solar and other forms of clean energy.

Saudi Arabia is also planning to increase sustainability through the adoption of a circular carbon economy approach, a massive tree-planting campaign, the reduction of carbon emissions by more than four percent of global contributions, and measures to combat pollution and land degradation.

The country is also planning to issue its first green bond early this year that complies with environmental, social and governance concerns. Such bonds will become one of the main funding channels for the Kingdom’s future.

As part of Vision 2030, the Ministry of Energy is building two renewable-energy plants, with a capacity of 600 MW, in the Third Industrial City in Jeddah and Industrial City in Rabigh. The projects are being implemented through MODON, the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones.

Meanwhile, a Red Sea battery-storage project will help to ensure the new resort destination taking shape along the Kingdom’s western coastline is powered entirely by renewables, and the Kingdom also plans to establish 23 solar panel factories in 12 industrial cities. At the end of last year, the largest solar plant in the region, with a production capacity of up to 1.2 GW, was inaugurated in Tabuk.

 The capacity of the world’s largest single-contracted PV solar plant, to be located in Sudair Industrial City in Saudi Arabia’s north, will be 1,500MW. (Supplied)

All of these projects will be essential to the efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change in a region where the damage it causes is tangible.

 Mercedes Maroto-Valer, director of the Research Center for Carbon Solutions at Heriot-Watt University in Dubai and director of the UK Industrial Decarbonization Research and Innovation Center, warned that the climate situation in the region is growing worse.

“Temperatures have also been on the rise, with the highest regional temperature to date recorded in Mitribah in Kuwait at 54C,” she told Arab News.

However, with the development of new technologies and the ambitious national targets agreed during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last November, there is hope yet for a more sustainable future.