GREEN ENERGY POWERS ON IN SAUDI ARABIA

The environment-friendly Red Sea Project is the latest example of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to build a sustainable and diverse economy that takes into account climate change issues.

In November, The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC) said it had awarded more than 500 contracts to international and local firms to build its regenerative tourism initiative.

“By the end of 2020, many more contracts will be awarded including for the airport terminal, an airport operator, and a major public-private partnership (PPP) utilities package that will secure 100% renewable energy generation, water desalination, waste treatment and district cooling. Together, these contracts will take aggregate commitments to a total approaching SAR 15 billion (USD 4 billion),” the company said.

The company is also collaborating with King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) to rollout a Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) programme that maps out land and coral reef conservation areas at the site and will improve preservation of the ecologically sensitive areas. The development’s master plan features the development of only 22 islands from more than 90 in the archipelago.

TRSDC and the kingdom’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture also signed a memorandum of understanding to implement and regulate the development’s environmental work and studies.

“We’re going beyond the current expectations of sustainable tourism at TRSDC. To ensure that we are doing all we can to become standard-bearers in luxury ecotourism, we aim to be one of the first global destinations to demonstrate a regenerative tourism approach,” said John Pagano, TRSDC’s CEO.

Meanwhile, MEWA also signed a five-year deal with the US Department of Energy to collaborate on desalination science and technology.

This memorandum of understanding aims to boost bilateral ties in the area of desalination industry, capacity-building and exchange of scientific, practical and technical expertise in desalination science and technology.

“This agreement includes the sharing of knowledge and information, cross-training, as well as collaboration on joint research and development projects for advanced technologies in the field of desalination, harvesting of valuable minerals from seawater brine and zero liquid discharge,” the two parties said.

The kingdom’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation’s Desalination Technology Research and the US Department of Energy will advance water research to develop “a better and greener world where desalinated water is widely affordable and desalination brine is no longer considered a waste but a valuable strategic product of high economic significance,” according to Eng. Abdullah Ibrahim Al-Abdulkareem, governor of SWCC.

In the same vein, Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) said it invited expressions of interest (EoIs) to build a desalination plant using seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) technology in Ras Mohaisen, 300 kilometres south of Makkah city. The new IWP will have the capacity to treat 300,000 cubic metres per day and begin commercial operation date in 2022, the company said.

The kingdom’s renewable energy projects are also making rapid progress, with news that the USD 500 million Dumat Al-Jandal wind farm project has received key equipment.

As many as 20 wind turbines built by Danish firm Vestas Wind Systems A/S recently arrived at the Duba port in the northwest of the kingdom.

Last year, the Dumat Al Jandal 400 megawatt (MW) wind project broke a new world record achieving the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for onshore wind power, at 1.99 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).

The project, awarded to a consortium led by France’s EDF Renewables and UAE-based Masdar Clean Energy in 2019, is the kingdom’s first utility-scale wind power project.

“Expected to be in commercial operation by 2022, the USD 500 million project will create 800 jobs in the construction phase with a further 150 jobs in operation and maintenance. The wind farm will generate enough power to supply 70,000 Saudi homes,” according to the kingdom’s National Renewable Energy Program.

Meanwhile, the National Agricultural Development Company (Nadec) also said its 30 MW solar energy project at its facility in Haradh region was more than 50% complete and should commence operations by the end of the first quarter of next year.

Invest Saudi Arabia notes that the kingdom’s natural solar endowment makes it especially conducive to the development of renewable energy.

“Saudi Arabia lies in the middle of the sunbelt, it ranks 6th worldwide in solar energy. Therefore, has a high potential of solar irradiation across most provinces,” noted Invest Saudi, which is tasked with promoting investments in the kingdom.

The country also ranks 13th worldwide in wind energy, and “has a high potential of wind energy along the northeast, central regions and mountains in the western region,” the Invest Saudi agency said.

While energy generated by the renewable sector in the kingdom is negligible today, the kingdom has set a renewables target of 27.3 gigawatts (GW) by 2024 and 58.7 GW by 2030.