In the first phase, the Saudi government and its agencies, in cooperation with the Riyadh-based King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), has begun building a desalination plant using solar power. The plant will have a capacity of 10 megawatts and a reverse osmosis plant that utilizes developed technologies in the field of solar energy.
“The solar energy scheme will reduce the cost of producing desalinated water and of generating power for use in the Kingdom, an oil-dependent nation which has also launched a national energy efficiency program,” said Prince Turki bin Saud bin Muhammad, KACST vice president. He said there was a need to promote solar energy projects in the Kingdom and the Gulf as these nations are planning and executing huge industrial, residential and manufacturing projects.
A total of nine desalination projects in Saudi Arabia alone that will be implemented at a cost of billions of riyals within a few years are currently either under study or under construction, according to a report from the state-owned Saline Water Conservation Corporation (SWCC), a major participant in the solar energy initiative. Moreover, the Saudi government’s goal is to add 30 gigawatts of generating capacity to its electricity grid by 2010, said a KACST official.
“Emitting about 7,000 watts of energy per square meter over an average of 12 hours every day, the Kingdom’s sun is a powerhouse,” he added.
Prince Turki said solar power could be a valuable resource and an addition to the energy portfolio of the Kingdom where most of the more than 40 gigawatts of electricity that is consumed per year is generated by fossil fuels. Moreover, the Kingdom’s population growth at a rate of about three percent — triple the world average — is also a challenge to deal with when it comes to questions of energy.
Prince Turki pointed out that a desalination plant with a production capacity of 300,000 cubic meters would be built within three years from the date of completion of the first phase.
This phase is experimental in nature, while the third phase will involve all agencies and a large quantity of funds in order to set up a number of solar-powered desalination plants after the second phase, he said.
