Renewable energy ‘Made in Germany’ set to make a difference

Saudi Arabia is developing several strategies to face the rising demand of energy. Huge investments in the power sector have been made, with contracts worth $9.5 billion in the first quarter 2012. Within the next decade, all in all $18 billion will be invested in alternative energy.
The government aims to have 20 percent of all energy produced by alternative energy sources in 2030. Especially photovoltaic technologies, or the direct conversion of light into electricity, will play a major role in the Kingdoms future.
For this reason the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce for Saudi Arabia (AHK Saudi Arabia) organized the conference “Saudi Arabia & Germany, a path to renewable energy” in the Marriott Hotel on Sunday. The conference was part of the governmental program “Renewables made in Germany”, which is supported by the Federal German Ministry of Economics and Technology and has been organized by the AHK Saudi Arabia. It was the third conference, which shows the continuous interest of the German economy to cooperate with their Saudi partners in the field of renewable energy.
Khalid M. Al-Sulaiman, vice chairman for Renewable Energy at King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (K.A.CARE) jointly opened the forum with Delegate of the German Industry and Commerce for Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Andreas Hergenröther, and Sven Portius, representative of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. High-ranking decision makers and experts from Saudi Arabia and Germany attended the conference.
“Germany enjoys an outstanding reputation throughout the world for its high-quality technical products and its practical expertise, particularly in the field of solar energy. German technology is still the world market leader. The development of the Saudi Arabian solar market is at the beginning with a promising outlook,” Andreas Hergenröther said at the conference.
The conference focused on the different options to use solar energy, different technologies and the opportunities for Saudi Arabia to use these technologies efficiently. In Germany the investments in the renewable energies sector reached 26 billion euros in 2010 and 370,000 people were employed in the field. For this reason it was also discussed how a local production in Saudi Arabia could lead to a new strategy for employment and what measures the Saudi government could take in the near future.
The conference was part of a German business delegation organized by AHK Saudi Arabia. The German companies will stay until Monday. During their four-day visit they will meet several Saudi companies for individual talks about business opportunities and sustainable cooperation.