Saudi Arabia, which is planning massive investment in renewable energy, hopes to export solar electricity to Europe in winter, when cooler temperatures reduce the need for air conditioning in the kingdom. It would be viable for Saudi Arabia to export up to 10 gigawatts, the equivalent of 10 nuclear plants, via North Africa and Italy or Spain, Khalid Al Sulaiman, vice president for renewable energy at the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy told a conference in Paris. At the moment Saudi Arabia has only about 10 to 11 megawatts of capacity installed, but the kingdom has huge ambitions to build renewable and nuclear capacity as it tries to reduce domestic oil consumption, Sulaiman said. The world’s top oil exporter said in February it aims to install 24GW of renewable power capacity by 2020 and 54GW by 2032. Sulaiman said the first solar tenders will be offered this year. He said studies show that the grid investment required to bring Saudi electricity to Europe would amount to between 15%-20% of the total investment required to install some 20GW renewable generation capacity. Transmission cables could go either via North Africa or via Turkey and Bulgaria, but the latter route is less advantageous because Bulgaria is a net exporter of electricity, he added.
Producing journalism that is worthy of the name is a costly business. For over 30 years, the publishers, editors and reporters of the Budapest Business Journal have striven to bring you business news that works, information that you can trust, that is factual, accurate and presented without fear or favor.Newspaper organizations across the globe have struggled to find a business model that allows them to continue to excel, without compromising their ability to perform. Most recently, some have experimented with the idea of involving their most important stakeholders, their readers.
We would like to offer that same opportunity to our readers. We would like to invite you to help us deliver the quality business journalism you require. Hit our Support the BBJ button and you can choose the how much and how often you send us your contributions.
