Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the opening of the Sakaka solar power plant on Thursday, and said that agreements have been signed for seven more solar power projects throughout the Kingdom, according to reports.
The projects are part of a push towards renewable energy under the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and an effort to diversify Saudi Arabia’s sources of domestic power supply to its growing population.
“During the past weeks, the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative have been announced, which showed that we, as a leading global oil producer, are fully aware of our share of the responsibility in advancing the fight against climate change,” the Crown Prince said.
“As part of our pioneering role in stabilizing energy markets, we will continue this role to achieve leadership in the field of renewable energy.”
The launch of the Sakaka plant in Jouf represents the Kingdom’s “first steps to utilize renewable energy in the Kingdom,” the Crown Prince added.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also said construction of the Dumat Al-Jandal wind energy plant was also nearly complete.
According to Arab News, the seven planned solar plants, in addition to the Sakaka and Dumat Al-Jandal projects, “would produce more than 3,600 megawatts….power more than 600,000 homes, and reduce more than 7 million tons of greenhouse emissions.”
“Some of these projects have achieved new records, where we registered the lowest cost of purchasing electricity produced from solar energy in the world,” the Crown Prince said.
