Saudi Arabia believes renewable sources could account for up to 10 percent of its power output by 2020 with prices coming down and a regulatory framework in place, an executive from state oil giant Saudi Aramco said. “The proposed target is between 7 to 10 percent of peak electricity generated by renewables by 2020, most likely solar...that represents roughly 5 gigawatts by 2020. Can we achieve that target? It's feasible,” said Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, director of new business evaluation department at Aramco. The Kingdom has said it was investing $80 billion to boost power generating capacity to 60,000 MW by 2020. Installed capacity in the Kingdom had reached 46,000 megawatts (MW) by March, an official has said. It was around 43,000 MW in 2009, with peak demand at around 40,000 MW. The Kingdom had said it was looking to start exporting power from solar energy by 2020. “It (solar energy) is expensive at this point, but as we see prices are coming down we know we have a very strong probability of having both the potential and the price correct by 2020-2030 ... It is a very strategic move into solar,” he added.
