DUBAI – Abu Dhabi government-owned green energy firm Masdar is looking into investing in Saudi Arabia, chief executive Sultan Al Jaber said Tuesday. “We are proactively seeking partnerships in Saudi,” Jaber told reporters, declining to give any details about the kind of project, or the investment capital under consideration. “I can't tell how much now because it depends on the market and the regulatory framework but we are seriously and closely looking at the Saudi market,” he said. Investing in renewable energy projects is an increasingly popular topic among the top oil exporters of the Middle East but actual green energy installations are few and far between. Masdar has made significant renewable energy investments in countries where political and public support for clean energy brings with it big incentives, especially in Europe. But back in the UAE, it has only around 10 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity up and running, with a 100-MW concentrated solar plant - the world's biggest - under construction and another 150 MW planned nearby. Saudi Arabia is seeking investors for a $109 billion plan to create a solar industry that generates a third of the nation's electricity by 2032, according to officials at the agency developing the plan. The Kingdom aims to have 41,000 megawatts of solar capacity within two decades, said Maher Al-Odan, a consultant at the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy. Khalid Al-Suliman, vice president for the organization known as Ka-care, said recently that nuclear, wind and geothermal would contribute 21,000 megawatts. “We are not only looking for building solar plants,” Al- Odan said in an interview in Riyadh yesterday. “We want to run a sustainable solar energy sector that will become a driver for the domestic energy for years to come.” – SG/Reuters
