Under the patronage of HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Minister of Energy, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Energy and the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) on developing the company’s renewable energy projects.
The signing of the MoU is in accordance with the Ministry’s functions and responsibilities to oversee renewable energy projects in the Kingdom. The Ministry will provide the company with the required support in assessing its renewable resources, ensure the readiness of the national transmission infrastructure, conduct the essential pre-development studies, and support the tendering and awarding processes for these projects.
The Ministry focuses on supporting and encouraging the drive towards empowering renewable energy in the Kingdom, HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Minister of Energy, said. This plays a significant role, HRH added, in achieving the Saudi Vision 2030’s objectives of enhancing sustainability, protecting the environment and natural resources, empowering the private sector, promoting local content, localizing renewable energy industries, and providing more renewable energy-related job opportunities in the Kingdom.
HRH noted SABIC’s prominent role in the national economy as a national and global industry leader. The company’s move towards meeting its power needs from renewable energy sources will contribute to the efforts of the Saudi Green Initiative and the CCE. This will open the door for more shared projects with top Saudi and global companies in this field.
It is essential to enhance sustainability in the Kingdom and achieve the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 through encouraging more investment in renewable energy, HRH asserted. Utilizing renewable energy sources is a significant part of seeking to reduce liquid gas consumption in electricity production and thus reaching the optimum energy mix, which targets having the share of each gas and renewables at 50% by 2030.
As a global petrochemicals leader, we recognize our responsibility to ambitiously demonstrate how our industry can accelerate its response to climate change, Mr. Yousef Abdullah Al-Benyan, Vice Chairman and CEO of SABIC, said. This collaboration with the Ministry of Energy will be a key enabler to realizing our Carbon neutrality strategy announced during SGI. We will increase our usage of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia to reduce our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. It builds on our commitment to enable the development of renewable energy and a circular carbon economy in the Kingdom.
It is worth mentioning that the renewable energy programs the Ministry is working on include supporting the building of this promising sector through mobilizing private sector investments and encouraging public-private partnerships. This would create a national competitive market for renewables, which would enhance the chances of the inception of a new industry for renewables technology.
The locations of the renewable energy projects are carefully chosen by a specialized Saudi technical team, ensuring the highest electricity generation quality. These projects play an important role in formulating the circular carbon economy, which is adopted by the Kingdom and was endorsed by it during its presidency of the G20 summit last year.
