Saudi Arabia To Offer More Than 1 Gigawatt Of Solar & Wind In Second Tender Round (MIDTERM Topic 2)

[Arslan Ijaz]

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/04/25/saudi-arabia-offer-1-gw-solar-wind-second-tender-round/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29

[Arslan Ijaz]

It is good for the Kingdom to go towards renewable energy for its energy needs. They have been exporting the crude oil and natural gas for a long time, so finally, they are thinking towards renewable energy now. Mainly because of their own benefit I guess, because either crude oil or its demand will run out sometime in the near future. So they don't want themselves to be left alone with nothing on hand. It is the good time for them to take initiative and have some alternatives for the power. Whatever is the driving force behind this, it is definitely good for the people overall in the world that these countries are moving forward towards renewable energy. Saudis have an influence over other middle eastern countries, so I hope those countries will also move forward towards renewable energy resources.   

[wmt3]

When the most oil rich countries in the world start moving towards renewable energy,,, I think its time for everyone to adapt as well. This is really good proactive approach. Hopefully this will be a real driving power in the green movement. My idea is that eventually energy giant nations like Saudi Arabia will be able to provide cleaner energy for comparable or even lower prices than traditional oil energy solutions.

[Arslan Ijaz]

Wojciech, It is definitely a good approach. Being deserted area, they have enough solar as well as wind energy to generate renewable energy from the respective source. It is good for them that they have decided to do this while they have oil reservoirs in hand, they can invest money from exporting oil into the renewable energy projects. 

[Martinez, Alfred S.]

I agree with the both of you; it’s wonderful to see that countries are buying into renewable and sustainable forms of energy. For a country that has ties to oil, it’s refreshing to see that they are indeed open for business. I commend them on doing their part to be conscious of the environment and the health of the planet. This may be inspirational to other pro-oil countries and open up their eyes that renewable sources of energy is inevitable and a necessity to preserve our earth.

[Dobhal, Shivani]

As most of you have already pointed out, this is definitely a great initiative by Saudi Arabia towards their renewable energy program. Come to think of it, it makes complete sense for the largest exporter of crude oil in the world to reduce its economic dependency on fossil fuels. What is fascinating is that they are acknowledging that eventually, the kingdom's oil monopoly is going to die down and are willing to invest extensively(30-50 billion dollars by 2030 according to a fortune magazine article) in the near future. I commend the country's ministry of energy resources and its leadership for that. Their efforts towards creating an energy mix of wind and solar energy to harness clean energy alternatives could also stem from the fact that the country has suffered major budget deficits due to oil price drops in recent years. Aiming for 10% of the country's power supply from renewable energy sources by 2023 seems difficult but not completely unattainable. Also, it is important to note that Saudi Arabia has incredibly hot summers, their crude oil consumption  going up to about 900,000 barrels a day and that is another reason why they are right in looking at cleaner, more economical energy resources for domestic as well as commercial purposes. 

Here are a few related articles on the Kingdom's renewable energy program

http://fortune.com/2017/02/02/saudi-arabia-renewable-energy-bid/

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2017/02/saudi-arabia-turning-to-wind-and-solar-power.html

[Dobhal, Shivani]

Alfred, I agree that should be an eye opener of sorts for other pro-oil countries. I mean when I think of Saudi, this picture of a fairly wealthy country that had made extensive economic progress due to their oil exports in the nineties comes to mind. But things are changing even for a country like theirs, where crude oil is much more abundant than the rest of the world. For oil producing giants like Saudi, to be able to create this vision and make commitments towards green energy initiative in their country is truly wonderful and for other countries (that are not so lucky when it comes to natural resources) to learn from. This shows that the sustainable energy revolution is real and is happening faster than one would think. 

[Chun S]

Saudi Arabia has the largest reserve of petroleum and the largest exporter all over the world, it has very cheap oil sources than that of any country. However, electricity production from petroleum in Saudi Arabia has been dropping from 100% in 1980 to current about 50%. In the recent years, Saudi Arabia has been diversifying its energy sources, they are planning to complete 17 nuclear reactors providing 15% of its power by 2040 as the base load power and targeting at 10% of electricity generated by solar or wind power, as well as heavily subsidizing natural gas. We can expect to see majority of electricity from Saudi Arabia will be generated by clean sources.

[Chun S]