Saudi Arabia accelerates progress on clean energy

Saudi Arabia has connected 2,100 MW of renewable energy to the grid this year, bringing the total capacity of installed renewable energy to 2,800 MW (2.8 GW) – up 300% from 700MW last year – generating energy equivalent to powering over 520,000 homes.

During the third edition of the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) Forum today at COP28 in United Arab Emirates, Saudi officials and CEOs took to the stage to discuss accelerating clean energy investments to achieve energy security, affordability, and climate action.

Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, emphasized the need to keep energy markets in balance while staying on the net-zero pathway. “Even with all the renewables coming to the market, it is still not enough to handle the additional demand we are seeing,” said Nasser. “What we need is affordable, sustainable, and secure energy. We need to take care of the whole world,” he added.

Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies, highlighted the need to scale-up renewable electricity. “This is where we need to focus. Even when we speak about green hydrogen, you need electricity; e-fuels, you need electricity. The whole transition is a matter of electricity. We can’t go everywhere at the same time, but fundamentally my view is that renewable electricity is much more than needed.”