Prince Dr. Turki Saud Mohammad Al Saud, Vice President of the Research Institutes at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. By Amal Al-Sibai Saudi Gazette An unlimited, infinite, and powerful natural resource that we have access to in Saudi Arabia is solar energy. Using this abundant resource, water desalination plants in the Kingdom will be powered by solar energy in the near future and the solar power plants will be in operation in all regions of the Kingdom 10 years from now, announced Prince Dr. Turki Saud Mohammad Al Saud, Vice President of the Research Institutes at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). According to Prince Dr. Turki, using solar energy to desalinate water in the Kingdom is the best strategy for a number of reasons. It is cost-effective, fosters water security and can eradicate water shortages in the region. It will boosts the national economy, and is an environment friendly technological solution. Using solar energy will also cut back on the pollution emitted by desalination plants that use conventional fossil fuels as energy sources. Governments of other Middle Eastern and North African nations should follow the Kingdom's lead in taking advantage of this economic source of energy that is so abundant in these countries: the solar energy irradiated on the deserts and coasts. Dr. Franz Trieb at the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics in Stuttgart, Germany conducted research on using solar power for water desalination. In his report, he wrote that each square kilometer of land in these countries receive every year an amount of solar energy that is equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of crude oil. Solar energy received on each square kilometer of desert land is sufficient to desalinate an amount of 165,000 cubic meters of water per day. This technology works by installing large mirror fields that concentrate the sunlight to produce high temperature steam for power generation or for the combined generation of electricity and heat that can be used for sea water desalination. Implementing this technology may procure a possible cost reduction in water desalination of up to 50 percent in the coming decade. Seawater desalination based on concentrating solar power offers affordable and sustainable means of securing freshwater in amounts large enough to cope with the growing deficits of freshwater in the region. Experts concluded that it is in fact, the only viable alternative. __
