Riyadh renewable goals favour gas

Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia is scaling back renewable power targets as the world’s biggest oil exporter plans to use more natural gas, backing away from goals set when crude prices were triple their current level,
according to Energy Minister Khalid
Al-Falih.
The kingdom aims to have power generation from renewable resources like the sun make up 10 percent of the energy mix, a reduction from an earlier target of 50 percent, Al-Falih said in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Al-Falih provided new details of the country’s revived solar power program as he joined other ministers to announce parts of a plan adopted by the cabinet on Monday to overhaul the country’s economy.
“Our energy mix has shifted more toward gas, so the need for high targets from renewable sources isn’t there
any more,” Al-Falih said. “The previous target of 50 percent from renewable sources was an initial target and it was built on high oil prices” near $150 a barrel, he said.
Saudi Arabia, which holds the world’s second-largest crude reserves, will double natural gas production under the plan, and the government will expand the gas distribution network to the western part of the nation. Generating more power from gas and renewables should make available for export more crude, which would otherwise be burned for electricity for domestic use.
Solar-power should be the main renewable energy option for the nation, Ibrahim Babelli, the country’s deputy minister for economy and planning, said in Dubai last month. Babelli directed strategy at the government agency previously responsible for renewable energy policy. The cost of building solar power plants is declining globally as Chinese panel makers boost manufacturing capacity and slash costs.
Saudi Arabia aims to increase renewable energy production to 9.5 gigawatts, according to the country’s Vision 2030 outline announced in April. State oil company Saudi Aramaco has a 10-megawatt solar installation on the roof of a parking lot at its headquarters in Dhahran.