Alternative energy resources are not as expensive as is often made out, MEED conference is told.

Utilising renewable energy sources will bring economic benefits for Saudi Arabia in the long term, MEED’s Saudi Arabian Energy EPC Projects 2013 conference in Al-Khobar has been told.

Yara Anabtawi, business development director for renewables, at the local Acwa Power, told the conference that the comparitive cost of solar power is not as great as is often stated.

“It is a myth that renewables is very expensive, if you do a cost allocation using real prices for fuel used [in traditional power generation] then the dimension changes,” said Anabtawi.

Anabtawi’s claim was backed up by data provided by Nikolai Dobrott of German energy consultant, Apricum Group. Dobrott told the MEED conference that if Saudi Arabia installed 10GW of photovoltaic (PV) solar power schemes by 2015, it would achieve a net saving of $46bn in the reduction of using oil for domestic energy use.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Centre for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-Care) is planning to produce 54GW of the kingdom’s total power through renewable methods by 2032.

Source: MEED