Water desalination is considered the best strategic choice to provide drinking water for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is already producing more than 18% of the world’s desalinated water. However, the cost of producing desalinated water is high due to the substantial energy consumption of the desalination plants. Therefore, reducing the energy cost will be positively reflected in the production cost.
With the advantage, that The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a high level of year-round sunshine, which is estimated at two thousand kilowatts per square meter per year (2000 kWh/m2/year). King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, KACST, has been working for some time on the research and development on harnessing solar energy.
Initiative objective
KACST aims, throughout this National Initiative for water desalination using solar energy, towards practically applying advanced Nanotechnology techniques in the production of solar energy systems and membranes for water desalination. These techniques have been developed through the KACST/IBM Joint Center for Nanotechnology Research. The initiative aims at finding technical solutions to address energy and water problems, and thus contribute to the national economy. One of the main objective of this initiative to desalinate seawater at a cost of less than 1.5 Saudi Riyals per cubic meter compared to the current cost of desalination of seawater by thermal technology which is in the range 2.5 to 5.5 Saudi Riyals per cubic meter, and desalination by Reverse Osmosis which is in the range 2.5 to 5.5 Saudi Riyals per cubic meter for a desalination plant producing 30,000 cubic meters per day. The cost of generated electricity by the new technology of solar photovoltaic will be less than 30 Halalah per kilowatt-hour.
Participants
The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Water & Electricity, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) are participating in this initiative with KACST.
Implementation mechanism of the initiative
The implementation of this National Initiative for water desalination using solar energy will be in three stages:
The first phase: Building a desalination plant with a capacity of thirty thousand cubic meters per day to meet the needs of one hundred thousand dweller of Al-Khafji City by construction of a solar energy facility with a capacity of 10 megawatts and a reverse osmosis plant by utilizing the developed technologies. This phase has started with the New Year.
The second phase: Building a desalination plant with a production capacity of three hundred thousand cubic meters per day at a site that will be chosen later. The implementation period for this is three years, and will start after the completion of the first phase.
The third phase: The implementation of several water desalination plants using solar energy in various locations of the Kingdom. This phase will start after the completion of the second phase.
These projects will be implemented by an industrial consortium that uses the technologies developed jointly by KACST and IBM, and markets it throughout the world within the framework of the Industrial National Strategy led by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.