Estimates of Area, Output and Levelized Energy Cost of Wind Energy Schemes in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Renewable energy is experiencing a surge in the Middle East and North Africa. Investigations of the economic feasibility of utility level renewable energy projects are necessary for such projects to become part of the zeitgeist of power generation in the region and be viewed as a sustainable clean alternative. Saudi Arabia, with the advent of Vision 2030, has placed renewable energy as a key pillar of its energy policy with several renewable energy projects planned and commissioned in the past couple of years. Although Solar Energy seems like an obvious choice for Saudi Arabia, owing to its location and the amount of solar irradiance it experiences annually, there remain unanswered questions about this option’s viability. Several investigations into the financial efficacy of large-scale solar projects in the kingdom have raised concerns about their economic feasibility. Wind turbines have the potential of resolving the economic questions about renewable energy as a source of power for domestic consumption to cover the Kingdom’s growing energy demands. The power generation capacity of Saudi Arabia has grown exponentially due to several factors such as modernization and a population boom in the past five decades, thus necessitating finding clean energy alternatives. In this work, estimates of area, energy output, and levelized energy cost for a large, utility-scale, energy scheme is obtained using a RETScreen model, which is informed by up-to-date figures from the region. The levelized cost of energy, area required, and energy output of a wind power plant with a nameplate capacity — the full load of the power plant as intended — equivalent to the country’s peak load demand is estimated. The levelized energy cost resulting from the model is compared with the current unsubsidized costs of energy in the kingdom.