Saudi Arabia sets 9.5GW renewable energy target

26 April 2016

Details will be laid out in upcoming King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative

Saudi Arabia has set an ambitious new renewable energy target of 9.5GW as part of its Vision 2030 plan.

As part of the Vision 2030 plan, which was approved by the cabinet on 25 April, it was revealed that Riyadh has set a new target of implementing 9.5GW of renewable energy projects to assist with meeting future energy demand.

While a timeline for the renewables target has not been specified, it is likely 2030 is the target date for the initial renewable energy programme. No information on specific targets for solar and wind programmes were mentioned in the Vision 2030 announcement.

Details of the programme will be provided in the planned upcoming King Salman Renewable Energy Initiative.

Riyadh is planning for a significant part of the materials and technology for the renewables schemes to be developed and manufactured within the kingdom.

The new 9.5GW renewable energy target follows the abandonment of the 54GW renewables target that was set by the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-Care) in 2012. Following the release of a draft white paper in February 2013, detailing the procurement plans for the initial projects, no further progress was made and the KA-Care renewables plan was effectively dropped from the kingdom’s agenda over the past two years.

While the KA-Care programme failed to materialise, state utility Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) made progress with its first renewables schemes in 2015, when it awarded contracts for the Duba 1 and Waad al-Shamal integrated solar combined-cycle (ISCC) projects, which will each have solar components of about 50MW.

In January 2016, MEED reported SEC was making progress with plans for the kingdom’s first major standalone renewables projects.

In February, the utility received prices for the technical consultancy role for the initial three renewables schemes.

The technical consultancy role will cover projects at different sites. Two 30-50MW photovoltaic (PV) solar schemes are planned at sites in Rafha and Al-Jouf, one at each site, and a 10-50MW wind project is planned at a site in Umiju. The schemes will be procured under the independent power project (IPP) model.

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