The great expansion and multibillion- dollar future investments in the Saudi energy sector in the last few years was strategically undertaken by the Saudi government to create a sustainable energy industry complementing the existing successful oil and gas sector. The objectives of this future expansion, especially in solar and nuclear, are to help the Kingdom meet the domestic high electrical energy demand as a result of the industrial and urban economic growth and avail more oil for export and more gas for petrochemicals. The ultimate plan is to avail more than 30 percent of the Kingdom's electrical energy demand from nuclear and renewable sources by 2032. The question here is: what is the role of Saudi universities to support this new energy strategy? Do they offer BS, MS and PhD programs for needed new disciplines in support of this strategy, such as Energy Economics, Energy Systems, Energy Engineering, Energy & Environment, and all Alternative Energy majors such as Solar, Bio, Wind, Thermal and Nuclear? In addition, do they have sufficient number of professors and researchers to support the R&D of these new disciplines that would help in achieving the sustainability objective? If the answer is no and having in mind the concept of renewable energy security, should we create these new disciplines now or continue relying on the out of Kingdom College Scholarship Program or the existing development undertaken by companies and institutions to develop their classical engineers into these new disciplines through specialized courses? Can we wait till this sector becomes a major part of the Saudi energy mix regardless of the current and near future solar and nuclear projects? I posted some of these questions in Twitter to promote further discussion among the energy specialists. I must say that the discussion was extensive and interesting. Everyone who participated in the discussion agreed that there are several challenges that will face the Saudi Alternative Energy Sector to achieve its stated goals. This includes technical, academic, awareness, environmental and health-related challenges, especially concerning nuclear power. Focusing on the academic challenge, here are some of the views put forward for discussion: — Difficulty to accommodate all alternative energy majors under one academic program and department. I think it's possible for several academic departments to collaborate to develop joint alternative energy programs. Each program can be placed under the closest department to the specialty as can be found in many US universities. — Include these new energy disciplines as minor majors under traditional engineering sections. This option is applied on a limited basis in some KSA universities especially under MS and PhD programs. — Insufficient number of professors and graduate students who can enrich the alternative energy scientific research. I hope that the officials of King Abdullah College Scholarship Program give higher priority to these new disciplines, especially in the master's and doctoral phase to fill this huge gap. — There are few students already enrolled in these new energy disciplines as part of King Abdullah College Scholarship Program. If so, I hope the project managers of all current and future alternative energy projects coordinate with the scholarship program officials to hire these students immediately after graduation. — It is recommended to immediately establish a BS programs for less complex energy disciplines such as Energy Economics, Energy Systems and Energy & Environment. — For quick wins, capitalize on the specialized energy training programs sponsored by the industry to fill the academic gap especially for classical engineering graduates. — Finally, not forgetting the important role of the King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Alternative Energy to address this academic challenge as part of the National Energy Strategy. In conclusion: I would say that the academic challenge for the future of this evolving energy sector deserves more than a discussion on Twitter or short article as such. It needs to be discussed at high level by specialized committees to assess the need for these disciplines in terms of quality and quantity that would achieve the future expectations and sustainability goal. Next week I will cover the discussion on nuclear energy. Dr. Sami Alnuaim is a Saudi writer. He can be reached at Twitter:@neaimsa and followed at www.saudienergy.net
