German Ambassador Dieter Haller together with CEO of Arabian Centres, Mr. Khalid Al-Jasser, officially opened the exhibition on the German Energy Transition "Energiewende" in the newly opened Al Hamra Mall on Monday, 27th of March. It is the first time that the exhibition is being showcased in Arabic. Germany has decided to switch the country's entire energy supply to renewables by 2050, one step at a time, pursuing clear and ambitious targets and using a precise roadmap. In 2016 the share of renewables in gross domestic power production reached 30 %. At the same time Germany is working on becoming increasingly energy efficient. The Ambassador expressed his intention to bring the Energy transition to a wider public which would most probably not visit a specialized fair and are grateful for being given this opportunity by Arabian Centres. He explained that the Energy Transition is the answer to the question of how Germany as an industrialized country can make its energy supply secure, affordable and sustainable. This unique opportunity for Germany as a location for business and investment would open up new business opportunities, foster innovation, create jobs and boost growth. In fact the journey had already started as he pointed out. The Energiewende is firmly embedded in an international framework. Germany welcomes in-depth dialogue with its European neighbors and international partners, and aims at cross-border cooperation and solutions. Being the pacemaker for renewable energy Germany has gained unique experience not only in the generation of renewable energy and related feed in and grid stability issues but also in the field of energy efficient housing and state of the art industries. The Ambassador invited the Kingdom to join Germany as it shifts to green energy. He underlined that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was blessed abundantly with sun and wind. He commended the Saudi Government for taking such bold steps in introducing renewables into the Saudi energy portfolio. Quite a number of German companies have signaled their interest in participating in the first round of the 700 MW tendering process. To create a generating capacity of 9500 MW until 2023 by renewable resources is an ambitious objective that the Saudi Government has set itself. The Ambassador reiterated that Germany is willing to cooperate with the Kingdom on a Government level between KACST and our Ministry of Research and on a private sector level. He equally congratulated the Saudi Government for its impressive energy efficiency program that includes all sectors like mobility, manufactural production and construction. The Ambassador expressed his delight to have the exhibition in Riyadh during the start of the first round of renewable energy tenders. Since the Kingdom had set itself ambitious goals and was moving swiftly towards implementation this exhibition came at the right moment.
