Saudi Arabia Launches the World's First Geographic Survey for Renewable Energy Projects
#SaudiArabia has launched a groundbreaking #geographic survey project for #RenewableEnergy, awarding contracts to national companies to install 1,200 stations for monitoring #solar and #WindEnergy across the country.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Minister of Energy, highlighted the importance of this project as follows:
▪️ The project will help identify the best locations for developing renewable energy projects in the Kingdom's regions based on the size of renewable energy resources and the priority of developing these projects.
▪️ It will provide accurate data that will help expedite the process of allocating and implementing renewable energy project lands.
▪️ The project confirms the Kingdom's commitment to achieving its ambitious targets in the production and export of renewable energy.
▪️ The project will help in achieving the optimal energy mix targets for #electricity production, where renewable energy sources will constitute about 50% of the energy mix by 2030. This also supports the Kingdom's approach to producing clean #hydrogen and achieving the goals of the Liquid Fuel Displacement Program by reducing reliance on liquid fuel for electricity generation.
▪️ The area being surveyed is nearly equivalent to the combined area of the United Kingdom and France.
▪️ The solar energy monitoring stations will use advanced ground-based measurement devices to determine and record various data: direct normal irradiance, global horizontal irradiance, diffuse horizontal irradiance, dust and pollutant deposition, ground albedo, ambient temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure.
▪️ Wind energy measurement stations will be installed at various heights up to 120 meters to record wind speed and direction, ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity.
▪️ The project includes the creation of a platform for monitoring, recording, and transferring measurement data around the clock, analyzing and processing it digitally using artificial intelligence to evaluate and rank the sites in terms of their suitability for renewable energy projects.
▪️ Accurate data makes the projects more profitable according to the requirements of local and international financing institutions, which will significantly contribute to the immediate allocation of land for renewable energy projects and accelerate the implementation process after coordination with relevant authorities.
▪️ The project will leverage the strategic geographic location of the Kingdom to export electricity generated from renewable sources.
The #Kingdom will launch projects to produce electricity from renewable energy with a capacity of 20 GW annually, starting this year, 2024, to reach between 100 and 130 GW by 2030, depending on the growth in electricity demand.
Ministry of Energy
#cleanenergy #greenenergy #sustainabledevelopment #energy #solar