Environment & Energy | Wednesday 3 October, 2018 1:50 am |

The Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources reaffirmed its plans to transform Saudi Arabia’s power sector to be more diversified, sustainable, competitive and efficient, in accordance with Vision 2030.
Contrary to recent media reports, the ministry, alongside the Public Investment Fund (PIF), SoftBank and other Kingdom’s stakeholders, is continuing to work on a number of large-scale, multibillion-dollar projects relating to the solar industry.
The long-term goal of these investments is to manufacture 200GW of PV capacity by 2030. Investors, technical advisers and contractors have been invited to take part in this program. Plans are also underway to develop shorter-term pilot projects.
Further detailing the ministry’s role, during the 11th Annual Arab Energy Forum held in Marrakesh, Abdulrahman Abdulkareem, adviser to the energy minister, outlined the Kingdom’s plan to become a global leader in solar energy and to develop $200 billion of investment opportunities in this promising sector.
The ministry has also outlined the power sector transformation plan which will comprise three main components: Restructuring the power market to enhance its competitiveness for consumers and its attractiveness for private-sector investments; Transitioning the Kingdom’s fuel and technology mix to include a significant capacity of renewables, primarily solar, but also wind; Investing, industrializing and localizing the full-value chain of the power industry for domestic and export-oriented manufacturing of conventional power components and services as well as new technologies.