Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman Al-Saud, has confirmed plans to tender new renewable energy projects with a capacity of 20GW annually starting this year, aiming to reach between 100GW and 130GW by 2030, "depending on electricity demand growth".

MEED first reported the planned near-tripling of the kingdom's 2030 renewable energy target, which stood at 58.7GW, in November 2023.

Prince Abdulaziz confirmed the new target on 24 June as the ministry announced the start of a geographic survey project for renewable energy sites in the kingdom.

The ministry signed contracts for the geographic survey with Saudi companies to install 1,200 stations for measuring solar and wind energy across all regions of the kingdom, according to a statement from the energy ministry.

The project will survey over 850,000 square kilometres, excluding populated areas, sand dunes and restricted airspace.

Prince Abdulaziz said the size of the area to be surveyed is approximately equal to the land area of the UK and France combined, or of Germany and Spain combined.

He added that "no other country in the world has previously conducted a geographic survey of this kind on such an area scale".

The survey's first phase will identify suitable sites for renewable energy projects. A subsequent phase will entail moving the survey stations to the specified sites to continuously provide all required data for implementing renewable energy projects with high accuracy.

The solar energy measurement stations, equipped with advanced measurement devices at ground level, will record direct normal irradiance, global horizontal irradiance, diffuse horizontal irradiance, dust and pollutant deposition rates, ground-reflected radiation or albedo, ambient temperature, rainfall levels, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure.

The wind energy measurement stations, which will be installed at different heights up to 120 metres, will record wind speed and direction, ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure and relative humidity.

Prince Abdulaziz said the project includes establishing a platform at the energy ministry "to monitor, record and transmit measurement data around the clock, so that it can be analysed and processed digitally, using artificial intelligence technologies to assess and rank sites based on their suitability for renewable energy projects".

It will support the goal of achieving the optimal energy mix targets for electricity production, with renewable energy sources comprising about 50% of the energy mix by 2030. It will also support the Liquid Fuel Displacement Programme by reducing dependence on liquid fuel in electricity generation.