As part of Saudi Arabia's plans to generate about half of its electricity needs from renewable energy by 2030, the Saudi Energy Procurement Company announced the launch of 5 new projects to compete to produce electricity using renewable energy.

The five projects come within the fourth phase of the projects of the Saudi National Program for Renewable Energy, and they represent part of the Kingdom's goals to reach the optimal energy mix to produce electricity from renewable energy sources, use gas by 50% for each, and displace liquid fuels used to produce electricity by 2030.

According to the Saudi Energy Procurement Company, the total capacity of these projects is 3,300 megawatts, and includes 3 projects to exploit wind energy and two projects to exploit solar energy.

The total capacity of wind energy production projects at this stage is 1,800 megawatts, distributed over a project in the city of Yanbu with a capacity of 700 megawatts, a project in the city of Ghat with a capacity of 600 megawatts, and a project in Waad Al Shamal (a city located in northern Saudi Arabia) with a capacity of 500 megawatts.

While the capacity of production projects from solar energy amounts to 1500 megawatts, distributed over two projects;

One in the city of Hanakiya has a capacity of 1,100 megawatts, and the other in the city of Tabarjal has a capacity of 400 megawatts.

The capacity of production projects from solar energy is 1500 megawatts (European)

strategic initiative

The National Renewable Energy Program is a Saudi strategic initiative that falls under the umbrella of Vision 2030 and the Saudi King’s Renewable Energy Initiative launched in 2017. This program aims to increase the Kingdom’s share in renewable energy production to the maximum and fulfill its commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Produce a total of 9.5 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2023.

The number of renewable energy projects, in the largest oil producing country in the world, is 13 projects (some of which are still under implementation) distributed in various regions of the Kingdom, most notably the Sakaka solar energy project with a capacity of 300 megawatts, the Dumat Al-Jandal wind power project with a capacity of 400 megawatts, and the Al-Rass project Solar photovoltaic energy in the Qassim region with a capacity of 700 megawatts, in addition to the Shuaiba solar power project with a capacity of 600 megawatts, and the Jeddah solar power project with a capacity of 300 megawatts.

By adding these five new projects to the previous ones, the number of renewable energy projects launched by the Kingdom since 2016 increases to 18 projects.

The project represents a real industrial application of research and development outputs in the field of solar energy produced by King Abdulaziz City research laboratories, in order to achieve what was stated in the Saudi Vision 2030, that the Kingdom be among the top 10 countries in the global competitiveness index pic.twitter.com/qicob8AdAS

— 🇸🇦Saudi vision 🇸🇦 (@_roya_ksa) September 29, 2022

Great Expectations

A Riyadh Chamber report issued last year expected that the total generating capacity of the projects of the National Renewable Energy Program in the Kingdom will reach about 5.6 million megawatts / hour, and increase the clean electricity generation capacity to approximately 58.7 gigawatts by 2030, including 40 gigawatts of solar energy and 16 gigawatts of energy wind and 2.7 GW of other renewable energy sources.

The Saudi expert and economic advisor, Sultan Al-Khalidi, points out that the aim of the Kingdom's proposal for new projects for competition, to produce electricity using renewable energy, is to provide its additional needs for electricity using non-oil sources to avoid the depletion of crude resources and diversify its economy.

Al-Khalidi said, in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, that the Kingdom is one of the largest oil countries facing continuous pressure in terms of demand for oil, and this matter may significantly deplete most of its oil reserves, noting that the period following the Corona pandemic witnessed a growing demand for oil.

He noted that the increasing demand for Saudi oil, in addition to the Kingdom's commitment to its market share in OPEC, increased pressures on oil stocks, which prompted a strong acceleration by many countries towards alternative and renewable energy.

"Within the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 👇"

5 giant projects to produce electricity from solar and wind energy in Saudi Arabia # Saudi Arabia # solar energy # wind # electricity # Saudi_vision_2030 pic.twitter.com/S8GXtqWgG0

— Energy (@Attaqa2) September 25, 2022

Emission reduction

Al-Khalidi asserts that reducing carbon emissions is one of the main goals behind the Kingdom's tendency to expand electricity generation projects through the use of renewable energy such as wind, solar energy and others, pointing out that carbon emissions resulting from the use of oil negatively affect the environment, which the Kingdom seeks to prevent. In particular.

He added that Saudi Arabia is one of the signatory countries to agreements to reduce carbon emissions, which prompted it to search and use other sources of electric energy, whether from renewable energy or the development of cities to generate solar energy, in light of the Kingdom's endeavor to make wind and solar energy represent 50% of the Energy used to produce electricity by 2030.

According to the Saudi economic expert, in addition to the contribution of such projects to alleviating the burden on oil reservoirs, preserving geological plates that affect the earth’s crust and preserving the environment and ensuring its sustainability, these projects will achieve economic returns through electricity sales, provide new job opportunities, and meet The increasing demand for energy, and then achieving sustainable development.

It is expected that Saudi Arabia will launch additional projects in 2022 and 2023, with a production capacity of 15 gigawatts.