Environment & Energy | Monday 24 June, 2019 2:16 am |

The African Energy Forum, which was held in the Portuguese capital city Lisbon, reviewed the Kingdom’s “2030 Vision” concerning adopting and supporting Solar Energy projects and its goals to lead internationally in producing solar energy. This was in participation with ministers of Energy an Industry of African countries, representatives of the European Commission's energy sector, Officials of the National Office of Moroccan Hydrocarbons and Minerals, The World Bank, a large number of company officials and private sector institutions leading in the field of renewable energy.

Participating in the session with a number of African leaders was businessman Khaled Ahmad Sharbatly, Executive Partner of a leading Saudi company specializing in solar energy, Desert Technologies. He confirmed that the Saudi Arabian Government supports the steps taken to diversify energy resources through the overall national development strategy in the “2030 Vision”, which focuses on the Kingdom’s commitment to provide upcoming generations a brighter future dependent on clean energy. The Saudi Government placed a goal for itself to produce 200 Gigawatts of Solar Energy by the year 2030, 120 Gigawatts will be exported outside the Kingdom while 80 Gigawatts will be used internally, becoming one of the most important producers and exporters of solar energy in the next few years. He also pointed that Saudi Arabia has the ability to develop and manufacture Solar Panels and the equipment to export Solar energy through the Solar Energy Project announced last year by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Abdul-Aziz Al-Soud, which will contribute to Saudi Arabia’s leadership in the future of clean energy across the world. These projects are expected to contribute an estimated 100,000 jobs in Saudi Arabia and an estimated 12 billion dollars in GDP, plus an estimated 40 billion dollars annually.

Sharbatly also spoke about the future of energy in the African continent, especially in villages, and developing miniature solar energy power plants. He expressed the importance of planning such projects and including a group of villages in a unified program as well as the importance of government guarantees to foreign investors, to enable them to implement these projects and to ensure the safety of investment.

Businessman Khaled Sharbatly counted solar energy projects as among the most important strategic projects needed by the Kingdom, which will contribute to reducing oil and gas consumption and investment in the available resources and creating a new industrial sector that addresses the needs of solar energy, such as transferring modern technology and achieving energy security, and reducing harmful emissions through the production of clean energy. Which will provide attractive opportunities both for investors from within the Kingdom and from abroad to invest in this promising sector.

It is worth mentioning that the “2030 Vision” supports solar energy projects, particularly by announcing the establishment of the world's largest solar power plant producing 200 gigawatts, one of the largest projects in the world. The Ministry of Energy, in cooperation with the Public Investment Fund, announced a plan to establish solar power plants in the Kingdom producing 80 GW for internal use, in addition to producing 120 GW for exportation, and a complete plan for more than 35 dedicated sites for the construction of mega-plants in the near future.