King ‘Abd Allah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) officials have outlined their proposed energy source scenarios as they prepare to help raise total Saudi power generation capacity to more than 120gw by 2032. Khalid al-Sulaiman, KACARE’s Vice-President for Renewable-Energy, told the Saudi Sustainable Energy Symposium in Riyadh on 23-24 April: “There are many possible energy mix scenarios. The option of a balance between hydrocarbons (50%) and new sources (50%) maximizes the return.”
Dr Sulaiman said that Saudi Arabia’s power generation capacity target is 123gw in 2032, which would require more than doubling the end-2012 total capacity of 55gw. Of the 2032 target, he said that 60gw would be generated from hydrocarbons, 18gw from nuclear power and 45gw from renewables (see chart). Of the renewables total, solar power would provide 41gw, waste-to-energy 3gw and geothermal 1gw. Separately to the electricity grid supply program, KACARE envisages that 9gw of wind capacity would be developed by 2032 to drive desalination plants. (CONTINUED - 588 WORDS)
