Saudi Arabia to study sites for more renewable energy plants

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy has initiated a geographical survey aimed at identifying the best sites for developing renewable energy projects in the Kingdom.

As part of the project, Saudi companies will install 1,200 stations to measure solar and wind energy metrics across all regions of the Kingdom, the ministry said this week.

The survey will cover more than 850,000 square kilometres (328,187 sq miles) across all regions of Saudi Arabia, excluding populated zones, sand dunes, and restricted airspace, energy minister AbdulAziz bin Salman said during the ceremony. He explained that this area is comparable to the combined land areas of countries like Germany and Spain.

Solar energy measurement stations, outfitted with ground-level sensors, will monitor direct normal irradiance (DNI), global horizontal irradiance (GHI), diffuse horizontal irradiance (DHI), dust and pollutant deposition rates, ground-reflected radiation (albedo), ambient temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure.

At the same time, wind energy measurement stations will be set up at various heights, reaching up to 120 metres, to measure wind speed and direction, ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity.

The survey and the resulting data are anticipated to accelerate the development of new solar and wind projects nationwide by saving 18 to 24 months typically required for data collection.

Saudi Arabia is taking significant steps to expand solar energy deployment as it aims to reach a 50% renewables share in its power mix by 2030. In February, the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) announced the list of qualified bidders for 3.7 GW of solar projects while ACWA Power signed power purchase agreements (PPA) for 5.5 GW of solar projects and secured funding for another 4.5 GW.

Beginning in 2024, the Kingdom will annually tender new renewable energy projects with a capacity of 20 GW, with the goal of achieving between 100 GW and 130 GW by the end of the decade, contingent on the growth in electricity demand, the energy minister said.

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