RIYADH – The 2nd Annual Solar Arabia Summit kicked off in the Saudi capital city Sunday full of optimism with the Kingdom's plan to invest $109 billion in the solar energy sector. Given the dismal state of the almost saturated solar markets, Saudi Arabia's growing interest in the solar industry is seen by many as a boost to the international market. The country's solar power plants dreams are in focus at Naseba's 2nd Annual Solar Arabia Summit, which is providing a perfect backdrop for key policy-makers, government officials, investors and business conglomerates to capitalize on the Kingdom's investment of $109 billion in the sector. The Summit comprises an exhibition, networking sessions and panel discussions. The first discussion of the day was delivered by Abdullah Mohammed Al Shehri, Governor, Electricity and Co-Generation Regulatory Authority, Saudi Arabia; Steven Geiger, Chairman, Skolkovo foundation and Gerhard Stryi-Hipp, Head of Energy Policy and Coordinator Smart Energy Cities, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy. During this discussion, the Governor highlighted that, ECRA will “give full support to the solar energy industry.” He said that in order for the industry to be successful, the “consumer experience must also be innovative.” “Up until now, Europe (and particularly Germany) was leading the PV market. However, US, Japan, India and especially China are growing markets while Europe is stagnating. Due to recent announcements from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, we expect this region will also become an important player in the solar sector very soon,” said Stryi-Hipp. Nicholas Watson, Managing Director, Naseba, said: “Amid reports suggesting that Saudi Arabia could exhaust their export oil supply by 2030, the Kingdom is obviously taking the wise approach to diversifying its energy sources to sustain economic growth. This summit is an excellent and well-timed platform for international solar developers and manufacturers who want to engage with key stakeholders in the country.” Saudi Arabia is getting serious about overcoming the technical and financial hurdles for tapping its other main resource: sunshine. Thousands of solar power panels have sprung up across Europe over the past few years, thanks to generous subsidies that make the technology an attractive alternative to conventional energy. Kingdom, too, wants to generate much more solar power as it lacks coal or enough natural gas output to meet rapidly rising power demand. Doing so would allow it to slash the volume of oil it burns in power plants bankrolled by billions of dollars worth of saved oil earnings. “At world market prices, solar is competitive if you use crude oil to generate electricity,” said Maher Al-Odan, a senior consultant at King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Research (KA-CARE) which was set up to plan Saudi Arabia's energy mix. 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. Recently KA-CARE set forth a much more ambitious plan, recommending that the kingdom aim to get more than a third of its peak-load power supply, or about 41 gigawatts (GW), from the sun within two decades at an estimated cost well over $100 billion. 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. – SG
