ESG

SAUDI TURNS TO INNOVATION TO IMPROVE ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Saudi Arabia is eyeing innovative solutions not only to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, but also to develop a sustainable economy.

In May, the minister of environment, water and agriculture and chairman of the board of directors of the National Centre for Meteorology (NCM), Eng. Abdulrahman Al-Fadhli, signed an agreement to buy five aircraft for the kingdom’s regional cloud seeding programme. Four of the planes will be dedicated to cloud seeding while the fifth will be used for weather and climate research. These aircraft are the newest of their kind and equipped with all the necessary technologies.

The cloud seeding aircraft will facilitate in building domestic capacity, transfer localised knowledge, ensure business sustainability, raise the level of coverage and eciency of cloud seeding, as well as reduce the accompanying costs of operating aircraft by providing private aircraft equipped with cloud seeding capabilities and techniques.

Saudi Arabia is only the second country in the world to own this type of research aircraft, which will be critical in enhancing water resources, developing vegetation, and providing benefits from renewable water sources.

The National Centre for Meteorology’s preliminary studies of rainfall resulting from the three phases of the cloud seeding programme led to precipitation of 3.5 billion cubic metres of water in target areas. A team of programme specialists is also documenting all data obtained to be evaluated through global research centres. Their research will be published at a later date.

During its first three stages, the programme completed 626.67 hours of flight through 190 cloud seeding missions, using 3,405 burners on the target areas.

  

GREEN INITIATIVE

The programme is part of the Middle East Green Initiative, which is being implemented by the NCM.

The efforts will play a major role in developing a greener and more vibrant Saudi landscape. Latest data from the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) notes that green spaces in the kingdom’s municipalsector rose 9% in 2021 compared to 2020, reaching 21,247 hectares.

Simultaneously, areas of gardens and parks also surged 8.9% compared to 2020, amounting to 15,514 hectares, in line with the government’s Green Saudi Arabia and Green Middle East initiatives

Around 133 wastewater treatment plants were deployed across the kingdom in 2021, representing an increase of 14.66% compared to 2020. Riyadh Region saw 26 new plants, the highest in the land, followed by Aseer Region (20 plants), and Eastern Region (19 plants).

“Terrestrial reserves area amounted to 324,151 square kilometres (sqkm) in 2021, covering 16.21% of the total area of Saudi Arabia. This expansion came after the government allocated seven royal reserves in 2018 and five reserves in AlUla in 2019. Marine reserves area, on the other hand, reached 12,216 sq km in 2021,” according to GASTAT.

 

ENERGY INTENSITY

Saudi Arabia is also making inroads in decoupling emissions from economic growth. That means an expansion of the economy does not necessarily lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions. A new report by GASTAT on energy eciency shows that total energy consumption intensity decreased by 2.74% in 2021 compared to 2020 to reach 639 barrel of oil equivalent per million riyals (BOE/million riyals), representing multiple sectors (industry, transportation, buildings, and others).

“The energy consumption intensity in the industrial sector amounted to 298 BOE/million riyals, which is a decrease of 4.79% compared to 2020, followed by the buildings sector with a decrease of 1.58%, while the transportation sector’s energy consumption intensity increased by 1.71% to reach 119 BOE/million riyals,” according to GASTAT’s annual report on energy efficiency.

Consumption of electric energy in the residential sector stood at 16.92 megawatt per hour (MWh) per subscriber, a decline of 0.92% compared to 2020, while electric energy consumption rate in the commercial sector rose 27.17 MWh per subscriber, a 9.91% increase compared to 2020.

“The total savings in primary energy from energy eciency initiatives increased by 19.05% compared to 2020 to reach 425 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/day). The savings in the buildings sector amounted to 340,000 BOE per day, while it reached 48,000 BOE per day in the transportation sector, and 37,000 BOE per day in the industrial sector,” the agency noted.

Efforts to conserve energy and water resources will go a long way in achieving the goals of the Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives, which aims to reduce Saudi Arabia’s carbon emissions by 278 mtpa by 2030, and plant 10 billion trees across the country.