Saudi Arabia works for producing 50% of the nation’s power necessities using renewable energy, while the rest provided by gas. The kingdom seeks to add gas and renewables capacity with one million barrels of oil per day by 2030.

Indeed, Riyadh’s efforts for directing the kingdom towards greener sources of energy like the recent signing of seven major deals to create electricity from solar power in many parts of the country.

The new projects

The new plans would have the capacity to employ about 600,000 households in the kingdom. The production capacity of these projects, and the projects of Sakaka and Dumat Al Jandal, would reach more than 3,600MW.

According to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the projects would also decrease greenhouse gas emissions by more than 7 million tons. He also said that Saudi Arabia wants to nationalize the renewable energy sector, promote the local content in it, and enable the manufacturing of the components of solar and wind energy production locally, allowing the Kingdom, within the next ten years, to become a global hub for conventional energy, renewable energy, and their technologies.

The Crown Prince also stated: A few weeks ago, the Green Saudi’ initiative and the Green Middle East’ initiative were announced. I explained that, as a world-leading oil producer, we are well aware of our share of responsibility in advancing the fight against climate change. In continuation of our leading role in the stability of the energy markets, we will carry on playing the same role to lead in the area of renewable energy.

Country’s leadership role

Otherwise, the Kingdom’s latest initiatives over sustainability and renewable energy constitute fundamental parts of the country’s leadership role over shared international subjects; they are part of efforts prepared by the Kingdom during its presidency of the G20 Summit.

On his part, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman said that these projects are a practical on-the-ground application of Saudi Vision 2030, that contributes to the optimization of the energy mix and the transformation of the Kingdom from the use of liquid fuel to gas and renewables, which makes these projects significant landmarks in the journey of the energy sector. He also indicated that the new projects are situated in Al Madinah, Sudair, Qurayyat, Shuaibah, Jeddah, Rabigh, and Rafha.

Prince Abdulaziz also said that certain of these projects have registered new world records for the lowest cost of solar-produced electricity. The Shuaibah project’s cost of electricity is reach 1.04 US cents per kWh.