http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/articles/i/5115/?cid=3

 

The Kingdom of Saudia Arabia has unveiled plans for a major solar energy strategy that will ultimately save up to 520,000 barrels of oil a day by 2032.

 

The King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) will implement the strategy, aiming for some 54 GW of renewable power over the next 20 years.

The planned solar capacity, of which 25 GW will be concentrated solar power (CSP) and 16 GW solar photovoltaics, will be enough to meet around a third of the country's energy demand.

The proposals also call for the development of 21 GW of nuclear power to meet a cover a further sixth of Saudia Arabia's energy demand and generate 'baseload' electricity.

A further 9000 MW of wind capacity will be installed and the remainder will be met through geothermal, waste-to-energy and conventional oil and gas.

The programme will start with a bidding round to install 2000 MW of solar power, 650 MW of wind and 200 MW of geothermal and waste-to-energy in 2013, with a second round to follow in 2014.

The Kingdom will introduce a technology-differentiated feed-in tariff support mechanism with no limit on project size.