QAZAQ GREEN.  The Saudi Energy Procurement Company (SPPC) has begun selecting bidders for the construction of four energy storage systems with a total capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW), сообщает Global Energy Prize.

The winners will have to commission grid-scale batteries in three regions located in the western (Mecca), northern (Hail) and central parts of the country (Al-Qassim). The four complexes will need to store a total of 8 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity, equivalent to 15% of Saudi Arabia's hourly electricity consumption.

The project is part of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to increase the share of renewables in electricity consumption to 50% by 2030. According to Ember, in 2023, renewable sources accounted for only 1% of the country’s electricity generation, while 99% was provided by thermal power plants using natural gas, fuel oil and even crude oil. For example, in 2023, oil burning at power plants in Saudi Arabia reached 472,000 barrels per day (bpd), exceeding the volume of oil refining in countries such as Iraq (449,000 bpd), Qatar (409,000 bpd), Qatar (409,000 bpd), and Oman (322,000 bpd).

Renewables will allow Saudi Arabia to increase the energy efficiency of its electricity sector. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), by the end of 2023, there were only 5 solar and wind power plants operating in the country with a total capacity of 2.8 GW. However, a further 25 facilities with a total capacity of 21.4 GW were in the planning stages, almost half of which should be operational by the end of 2026. Favorable weather conditions – a large average annual number of cloudless days and high solar insolation – will facilitate the use of renewables for hydrogen production. The International Gas Union (IGU) estimates that the cost of producing green hydrogen in Saudi Arabia ($5.1/kg) will be lower than the US ($6/kg), Japan ($7.5/kg) and Germany ($8/kg).

In recent years, low-carbon sources have played an increasingly important role in the energy sector of countries in the Middle East. Thus, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this year the fourth power unit of the Barakah nuclear power plant was put into operation, which became the first nuclear power plant for the region. The plant will enable the UAE to achieve a quarter of its 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The use of clean energy will also be supported by the commissioning of a 250 MW pumped storage power plant (PSPP) in the city of Hatta scheduled for 2025. Next to the new pumped storage power plant is the large Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park, which will supply electricity to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper one through a 1.2 km long tunnel.