SAUDI ARABIA: World's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia hosts a summit aimed at maximising its other main resource: sunshine

Record ID: 189013

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA: World's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia hosts a summit aimed at maximising its other main resource: sunshine
  • Date: 20th September 2012
  • Summary: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (SEPTEMBER 16, 2012) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABDULLA AL-SHEHRI, GOVERNOR OF ELECTRICITY AND CO-GENERATION REGULATORY AUTHORITY, SAYING: "In 2032 we expect that solar energy to cover a large proportion of the needs of Saudi Arabia from electric power, and another big part to be covered by the nuclear power. This will bring significant savings to the oil which is used in the production of energy (electricity) that can be sold on the world market at prices that bring back a big amounts of money to the state budget ." VARIOUS OF MECCA MAYOR, OSAMA AL BAR, MAKING A PRESENTATION SCREEN WITH ARABIC WRITING 'WILL THE HOLY CAPITAL BECOME THE SOLAR POWER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD?" (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) OSAMA AL BAR , MAYOR OF MECCA, SAYING: "The municipality of Mecca has ambition to be the first municipality owner of a solar station with a capacity of 100 MW, there is project put through privatization, more than 20 global consortium groups entered in this competition, we hope that in the end of October the envelops will be opened and then go to the stages of implementation." VARIOUS OF SUMMIT PARTICIPANTS
  • Embargoed: 5th October 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Topics: Business,Environment,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA41E026M7T8QD6VMMYDC03A68M
  • Story Text: Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, may finally be getting serious about overcoming the technical and financial hurdles for tapping its other main resource: sunshine.
    Sunshine in Saudi Arabia ranges from twelve to thirteen hours in the summer, and six to eight hours in the winter - and for many solar energy companies, the country is an obvious prime market.
    And on Sunday (September 16), Riyadh opened a two-day meeting focusing on the country's solar energy potential, attracting some of the world's leaders in the industry.
    "Saudi Arabia is for me is the country of energy - you have oil, you have gas and you have the sun, and the sun was always a little bit estimated but you have 2.5 times more energy than what we can create in Europe. So therefore sun power is very very important for Saudi Arabia. It's a fantastic location for this and this is why we have also selected Saudi Arabia as our target market," said Karl Gartner, head of Conlux - an Austrian-based company specialising in LED and photovoltaic technology.
    In May, King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Research (KA-CARE) said the first two solar plants, with combined capacity of 3 GW, might be put to tender in the first quarter of next year.
    One of these will use concentrated solar power (CSP), which Riyadh says could supply an eventual 25 GW of the total 41 GW of planned solar capacity.
    The other will use photovoltaic (PV), the technology expected to meet the rest of the overall goal.
    CSP is relatively new and much more expensive than PV. But unlike PV, it can store solar energy for several hours, which is a big advantage in a country where air conditioning demand remains high in summer long after the sun has gone down.
    Both technologies will suffer efficiency losses in Saudi Arabia's harsh, arid conditions, but long periods of intense sunshine should help compensate.
    "The kingdom established a very ambitious plan for solar energy future ,and we are confident that this will happen as this place is really very adopted to use of solar energy ,so we think it will be very interesting development in the future in this sector in Saudi Arabia. So we are confident to make our contribution to this development," said Giampiero Cittati of Energy 4Evolution company.
    Saudi Arabia has said it wants to become a major solar producer before, but its investments amount to much less than 50 megawatts versus several countries which have added thousands of megawatts a year.
    Making the plan work economically rests on three assumptions: that technology improvements will cut costs, that a domestic solar industry will emerge and create jobs for a booming population, and that many billions of dollars worth of exportable oil will be saved.
    An average of 700,000 barrels a day of crude were used in Saudi power stations during the peak air-conditioning demand period from May to September last year, according to official data supplied to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI).
    Although a rise in gas production should temper crude burning this summer, it will likely rise substantially in years ahead unless alternatives are found, and fast.
    "In 2032 we expect that solar energy to cover a large proportion of the needs of Saudi Arabia from electric power, and another big part to be covered by the nuclear power. This will bring significant savings to the oil which is used in the production of energy (electricity) that can be sold on the world market at prices that bring back a big amounts of money to the state budget," said Abdulla al-Shehri of Saudi Arabia's Electricity And Co-Generation Regulatory Authority.
    Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca is aiming high: it wants to become the capital of solar energy in the world.
    "The municipality of Mecca has ambition to be the first municipality owner of a solar station with a capacity of 100 MW, there is project put through privatization, more than 20 global consortium groups entered in this competition, we hope that in the end of October the envelops will be opened and then go to the stages of implementation," said Mecca Mayor Osama al-Bar.
    Because Saudi Arabia wants to keep consumer electricity prices very low, solar power investments will need hefty state support.
    But the economic benefits of saving hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of oil, the country's largest export earner, supports the economic case.
    KA-CARE expects the aim of developing an indigenous solar industry to increase costs.
    Yet this offers the benefit of hi-tech job creation and the prospect for developing new solar technologies in the country.
    To that end, the kingdom will require bidders for big solar projects to offer jobs to Saudi nationals and technology transfers.
    KA-CARE plans to pick the best technology currently available around the world and develop it further and sees most scope for this in the comparatively immature CSP market.
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