Saudi Arabia commits to 50 per cent clean energy by 2030

Saudi Arabia has committed to producing 50 per cent of its energy from clean energy sources by 2030 in addition to reducing carbon emissions by 130 million tonnes as part of its newly launched ‘Green Initiative

Saudi Arabia has committed to producing 50 per cent of its energy from clean energy sources by 2030 in addition to reducing carbon emissions by 130 million tonnes as part of its newly launched ‘Green Initiative.’

The Green Initiative, launched by the kingdom’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman on 27 March, also sets out goals to increase vegetation cover by planting 10 billion trees, which is equivalent to rehabilitating 40 million hectares of degraded land.

“The Saudi Green Initiative will also reduce carbon emissions by more than 4 per cent of global contributions, through renewable energy projects that will provide 50 per cent of electricity production in the Kingdom by 2030, and clean hydrocarbon technologies that will eliminate more than 130 million tons of carbon emissions, in addition to raising the proportion of waste diversion from landfills to 94 per cent,” the crown prince revealed during the launch of the new initiative.

Bin Salman also revealed that the kingdom and other regional countries were planning to launch a ‘Green Middle East Initiative’, which would seek to plant an additional 40 billion trees and work together on reducing carbon emissions from the oil and gas sectors.

“The share of energy production nowadays is not more than 7 per cent in the Middle East, and that the technologies used in oil production in the region are not efficient,” revealed the crown prince.

 “Saudi Arabia will work with these countries to transfer knowledge and share expertise, which will contribute to reducing carbon emissions from oil production in the region by more than 60 per cent, and these joint efforts will achieve a reduction in carbon emissions of more than 10 per cent of global contributions,” Bin Salman added.

Saudi Arabia has set an ambitious target to install 58.7GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, with Repdo to oversee the development of 30 per cent of this though a competitive IPP tendering programme.

Energy & Utilities reported in January that Saudi Arabia’s Renewable Energy Project Development Office (Repdo) has signed the power purchase agreements (PPAs) for more than 1GW of photovoltaic (PV) solar capacity under the second round of the National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP).

Developers are currently working on proposals for the third round of the NREP, which will have a total combined capacity of 1.2GW.

A bid submission date of 6 April has been set for the Category A projects, with bids due for the larger Category B projects on 24 May.

The Category A projects are:

• Wadi ad-Dawasir, 120MW
• Layla, 80MW

The Category B projects are:

• Ar-Rass, 700MW
• Saad, 300MW

Each project will be developed under a build-own-operate (BOO) model, with the successful bidder holding 100 per cent equity in the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to developer and operate the IPP.

SPVs will sign a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the kingdom’s offtaker. Land for the projects will be secured by Repdo and provided to the project company under sub-lease agreements.