Saudi Arabia sees 300% rise in installed renewables capacity

Saudi Arabia announced during the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) Forum at COP28 that it has connected 2,100 MW of renewable energy to the grid this year, bringing the total capacity of installed renewable energy to 2,800 MW (2.8 GW) – up 300 per cent from 700MW last year – generating energy equivalent to powering over 520,000 homes.

Amin Nasser, CEO, Saudi Aramco, emphasised the need to keep energy markets in balance while staying on the net-zero pathway. “Even with all the renewables coming to the market, it is still not enough to handle the additional demand we are seeing,” said Nasser. “What we need is affordable, sustainable, and secure energy. We need to take care of the whole world,” he added.

Patrick Pouyanné, CEO, TotalEnergies, highlighted the need to scale-up renewable electricity. “This is where we need to focus. Even when we speak about green hydrogen, you need electricity; e-fuels, you need electricity. The whole transition is a matter of electricity. We can’t go everywhere at the same time, but fundamentally my view is that renewable electricity is much more than needed.”

With ambitious targets spanning the coming decades, the Saudi Green Initiative aims to improve the quality of life and protect future generations by increasing reliance on clean energy, offsetting the impact of fossil fuels, and protecting the environment.

Saudi Arabia’s progress on clean energy targets under SGI

By the end of 2023, the production capacity of renewable energy projects under construction in Saudi Arabia will exceed 8 GW, with an additional 13 GW of renewable energy capacity in various stages of development across multiple projects.

The kingdom is also building highly efficient plants equipped with carbon capture and storage technologies, with a total capacity of approximately 8.4 GW.  

Read: COP28: Saudi Green Initiative plants 43 million trees, shrubs since launch