Saudi Arabia to focus more on solar power?

July 20, 2015

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, may also see their solar energy exports climb toward the top of this list.  A country that has made so much of it’s money on oil exports is also a geographical powerhouse for the production of solar energy and plans to have at least around 40 GW of solar production by the year 2032.

One of the biggest reasons for this potential change is that oil production in Saudi Arabia over the last decade has risen by about 5%, but their consumption of oil has risen around 50% over the same time period.  The country would rather export the oil than use it themselves because they make more money when the can export it if they can use other sources of energy at home that require cheaper production costs.

Which route will they take to make energy consumption cheaper at home?  Well, perhaps by increasing the amount of solar power production.