Doha,
Qatar
- Synonymous with crude oil and the vast wealth it has bestowed, Saudi
Arabia is now planning to tap its copious exposure to the sun to become
the world's titan of solar power.
The
Saudi government is placing its bets squarely on the country's abundant
sunlight, as it seeks $109bn in investment to fire up its solar energy
sector. A total of $136bn was invested worldwide in solar energy
in 2011, underscoring the kingdom's determination to develop its own
industry.
The
goal is to power about 30 per cent of the country's burgeoning energy
needs by 2030.
Saudi
Arabia's massive expenditure into renewable energy could transform the way
human societies generate power, observers say.
"I don't think Saudi
Arabia is doing this for generosity to the planet in terms of
climate change mitigation. It makes absolute business sense for
them to do it."
- Adnan Amin,
International Renewable Energy
Agency
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Adnan
Amin is the director-general of the Abu
Dhabi-based
International Renewable Energy Agency. When asked if Saudi Arabia's solar
development could revolutionise global energy production, Amin
replied: "Absolutely,
I see this as a game-changer."
Speaking
at the UN climate change talks in Doha, Amin noted the irony of the
world's largest exporter of hydrocarbons now attempting to become its
biggest provider of solar power - by using its vast fossil-fuel wealth to
make it happen.
Others
have also hailed the plan as visionary, as it spends billions on research
to develop a sustainable energy bonanza. However, sceptics say the kingdom's solar push would be
insignificant for climate change mitigation, since the world's leading oil
exporter would continue to pump its crude to other nations to burn, with
carbon dioxide still reaching the atmosphere and threatening the
planet.
Economics
of the sun
Saudi
Arabia's courtship with solar energy appears more likely motivated by
economics rather than environmental concern. With summer months of 50°
Celsius (122°F) temperatures, the country and its 25 million people use up
a significant amount of crude on air-conditioning alone.
"I
don't think Saudi Arabia is doing this for generosity to the planet in
terms of climate change mitigation," said Amin. "It makes absolute
business sense for them to do it."
Saudi
burns 850
million barrels of oil each year for its domestic energy consumption,
accounting for about 30 per cent of its total
production.
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With
its population and energy needs rising, it is imperative for the kingdom
to act now and diversify its energy sources, analysts say.
"Oil
is more precious for us underground than as a fuel source," Saudi Prince
Turki al-Faisal told
the World Economic Symposium in Brazil in October. "If we can get to the
point where we can replace fossil fuels and use oil to produce other
products that are useful, that would be very good for the
world."
The
Saudi government aims to generate 41,000 megawatts of solar power within
two decades, which would domestically save as much as 523,000 barrels a
day of oil equivalent, according to King Abdullah City for Atomic and
Renewable Energy, the government body overseeing the solar
programme.
Energy
tipping point?
While
Saudi Arabia turns on the solar switch, anti-climate change proponents say
its immense oil reserves will still be harvested, sold, and released into
the atmosphere as CO2 - doing little to halt global warming in decades to
come.
Others,
however, see the move as a key starting point for a major shift to
renewable energy globally, with Saudi oil wealth funnelled into solar
research and development - along with other renewables such as wind,
geothermal, and biomass sources.
Hoda
Baraka from Greenpeace said her group had noted the "unprecedented nature
and size of planned Saudi investments in solar".
"Greenpeace
sees Saudi development plans as important in promoting what we hope will
be an east-west regional push for solar," said Baraka.
"The capacity
envisaged by Saudi Arabia is likely to change the nature of the
global solar industry."
- Clint Steyn and Marc
Norman, analysts
|
In
terms of fighting climate change, Saudi Arabia turning to the sun for
energy is a "complicated one", Robin Mills, head of consulting at Manaar
Energy in Dubai, told Al Jazeera.
"Most
likely the solar power programme should reduce emissions - since the
additional Saudi oil will either be kept in the ground for the future, or
exported, in which case it would replace high-cost oil from other sources
- Canadian oil sands for example - which have a higher carbon footprint,"
Mills said.
Despite
scepticism, Saudi Arabia's solar investment will without doubt bolster the
business of sun power at a time when viable alternatives to fossil fuels
are urgently required.
"The
potential opportunities for solar power in Saudi Arabia abound," said
Dubai-based energy analysts Clint Steyn and Marc Norman in a recent report titled: "Saudi Arabia: The Future
Solar Leader".
"The
kingdom could rapidly become one of the world's most significant solar
power markets as well as a 'game changer' for beleaguered solar equipment
manufacturers ... The capacity envisaged by Saudi Arabia is likely to
change the nature of the global solar industry."
Saudi
solar exports?
Leon Kaye, founder and editor of GreenGoPost.com, said it
was the fossil-fuel rich countries of the Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia, that
could lead the way to a cleaner planet.
“While
the rest of the world is mired in austerity or political inertia or
focused on development, the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] countries
have the deep pockets to fund the further development of all these new
technologies - which are still expensive and require massive amounts of
capital."
Professor
Thomas Wilbanks from the US-based Climate Change Institute agreed.
"The
oil-exporting countries of the Middle East have the advantages of lots of
sun, lots of land area to deploy solar collectors, and lots of financial
resources to invest in solar energy system development. Few other
countries in the world have that combination of assets for solar
energy."
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A Saudi
man walks past a solar installation
[Reuters] |
Saudi
Arabia plans to generate as much solar power as it exports in the form of
crude, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in
a speech in Poland in June 2011. The country has the potential to produce
enough solar energy to meet four times the world's electricity demand, he
added.
Khalid
al-Suliman, vice-president of the King Abdullah City for Atomic and
Renewable Energy, told the Eqtisadiah
daily newspaper this week that a feasibility study had been conducted, and
Saudi Arabia was now looking at exporting solar energy to European Union
countries, via Turkey, during the winter months.
The
country could eventually "meet
large export volumes of solar energy in the future", said the
International Renewable Energy Agency's Amin. With the
amount of solar radiation Saudi Arabia receives, those ambitious goals are
scientifically plausible, he added.
Construction
of the nation's first solar plant will start in early 2013, said Al-Suliman.
It is scheduled to be operational within two
years.
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