Powering The Future
Mahmoud Sulaimani, Managing Director of Siemens Energy Saudi Arabia, explains how company and kingdom are transforming the energy landscape and contributing to the global fight against climate change.
Saudi Arabia is a signatory of the Paris 2015 agreement on climate change. What will this decarbonization push mean for the power sector in the country?
As a global energy leader, Saudi Arabia is in a strong position to spearhead the decarbonization movement globally and has committed to reach 50% renewable energy by 2030. But reaching that goal takes time and that’s why we are working with Saudi Arabia to develop innovative interim solutions that will support its decarbonization push and set the stage for it to become a clean energy hub.
Saudi Arabia has already shifted towards cleaner gas burning instead of oil for its energy production and we, at Siemens Energy, are supporting it through this shift with our wide range of highly efficient gas turbines. The kingdom has also taken major steps towards producing clean energy through numerous renewable projects across the country. Furthermore, it has plans to build the world’s most advanced energy hub in its futuristic city, NEOM, which will be fully powered by renewables, with forward looking energy storage and transport solutions.
At Siemens Energy, we take pride in the fact that we are leading the global transition towards the energy systems of the future and, as a Saudi national leading this company in the kingdom, I am proud to help my country in achieving its decarbonization goals.
As the top oil exporter, what is Saudi Arabia’s potential when it comes to clean energy?
Saudi Arabia has strong potential to become a leader in renewable energy, and that is well reflected in the country’s Vision 2030.
The country has already started tapping into its potential, with green projects such as the 300 MW solar PV powerplant project in the northern region of Al-Jouf, which was inaugurated this year. Another project, in Dumat Al-Jandal, will produce 400 MW of onshore wind, making it Saudi Arabia’s first wind farm and the largest in the Middle East when completed.
These two projects only scratch the surface; the kingdom has announced seven more renewable energy projects this year, which will bring its renewable power capacity up to 3,600 megawatts, enough to power more than 600,000 homes and reduce greenhouse emissions by more than seven million tons.
The future of Saudi Arabia’s energy industry will also include green hydrogen. NEOM city will be the center for green hydrogen in Saudi Arabia, with the potential
to export the clean resource. It’s something that I am very proud of, and it would be great to see my country transition from being a leading oil exporter to a leading exporter of clean energy.
How has digitalization helped you through the COVID-19 pandemic and what role will digitalization play in the future of energy in the kingdom? Digitalization is one of the ways in which we minimized the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on our business. We were lucky to have a strong IT infrastructure in place, which enabled us to keep our business going despite the difficulties.
Even when we were faced with curfews and lockdowns, we managed to fulfil our commitments to ensure short turnaround times for important assets at more than 40 project sites in the kingdom, as well as at our own facilities. We also witnessed an increase in online collaboration between our factory in Dammam and the global manufacturing network. Thanks to digitalization, we were able to keep the business of our customers running, while using digital technologies to get support from our global experts where needed.
So, in my opinion, the pandemic was actually a catalyst that helped expedite digitalization in certain areas of our operations and it allowed us to identify new opportunities where we can digitalize further.
Part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is to provide high living standards for its citizens. How does the power infrastructure fit into those plans? Saudi Arabia aims to raise the living standards of its 35 million people, and ensuring stable and reliable power as well as upgrading the power infrastructure is a crucial step towards achieving that goal.
For over a century, Siemens has partnered with Saudi Arabia to bring power to people’s homes. In the mid-1800s, Werner von Siemens personally led a team to lay telegraphic cables under the Red Sea. In the 1930s, Siemens power generation equipment helped lay the foundation for Saudi Arabia’s sophisticated power infrastructure that is found today. Now, Saudi Arabia is at a different stage; it is transforming its energy sector to become cleaner, more efficient, and more reliable for its population.
One of the most rewarding projects in the country is the Roshn megaproject in Riyadh. This real estate project was launched to encourage more Saudis to own homes and to provide them with mixed-use communities with high living standards and facilities. We, at Siemens Energy, are proud to take part in this project by helping to bring power to the 30,000 homes.
Saudi Arabia has plans to become an industrial hub and is keen to attract foreign investors. Do you have plans to expand your operations in the country?
We consider ourselves part of the country’s growth story. Our commitment to Saudi Arabia is unwavering and we have celebrated some great milestones with the kingdom, such as the first “Made in KSA” gas turbine that was built in our factory. The Siemens Energy Dammam Hub was also expanded to include locally assembled compressor trains and is growing to become the largest gas turbine and compressor manufacturing facility in the region.
This expansion will add value to our customers in Saudi Arabia because it will enhance local manufacturing and will create more jobs with a focus on Saudization. We aim to support the development of sustainable industries through the localization of technologies, driving the digital industrial transformation in Saudi Arabia in line with Vision 2030.
“The kingdom has announced seven more renewable energy projects this year, which will bring its renewable power capacity up to 3,600 megawatts, enough to power more than 600,000 homes.”
In terms of digitization, Saudi Arabia is third in the region and 34th globally in the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking by the Institute for Management Development. The kingdom has made one of the biggest financial commitments to digitization in the region, promising to attract $20 billion in FDI and local investment in data and AI. It has also set more ambitious goals such as training 20,000 data experts and launching 300 active startups by 2030.
Aramco has already commenced its digital transition by forming a strategic partnership with industrial tech firm, SAP Saudi Arabia, which paves the way for the introduction of emerging technology into a constantly changing technical environment. The Saudi Railway Company (SAR) has joined hands with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as part of the national railway company’s initiative for major digital transformation. Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) and U.S. contractor, Lockheed Martin, have formed a joint venture that the PIF-owned entity said will enhance Saudi Arabia’s domestic defense and security capabilities. Meanwhile, Central Bank digital currencies could launch in Saudi Arabia in two-five years.
Environmentally, Saudi Arabia has unveiled “The Saudi Green Initiative” to plant 10 billion trees in the coming decades in a bid to increase vegetation cover in the kingdom, slash carbon emissions, and combat land degradation.
When it comes to policy reforms, Saudi Arabia is currently drafting four new laws as part of judicial reform, including the Personal Status Law, which aims to enhance the efficiency of the country’s judicial institutions and reliability in its procedures, according to the staterun news agency.
Sustainability
Since the launch of Vision 2030, the kingdom has taken significant steps to scale up its climate action and environmental protection. In March 2021, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the Saudi Green Initiative, which plans to unify all sustainability efforts in the kingdom to increase reliance on clean energy, offset the impact of fossil fuels, and combat climate change.
The Saudi Green Initiatives has four broad objectives.
Transforming The Energy Mix: Saudi intends to move away from fossil fuels and is aiming for renewables to make up 50% of the kingdom’s energy by 2030. To help towards these goals, there are nine active and developing solar and wind power projects across Saudi Arabia that will have a total energy generation capacity of 3,760MW. Amongst them is Saudi’s first utility-scale (300MW) solar PV plant in Sakaka, which offsets greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 120,000 cars from the road for one year. What’s more, the NEOM and ACWA Power green hydrogen plant, planned to be the world’s largest, will generate enough energy to fuel 20,000 hydrogen-powered buses daily.
Reducing Emissions: This objective will se sive energy efficiency push for buildings, industry, and transport. The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), of which Saudi Aramco is a founding member, is investing $7 billion in low carbon solutions. Additionally, 9,900km of railway lines are planned under the Saudi Railway Master Plan, which will reduce traffic, and lower carbon emissions contributed by vehicles.
Making Saudi Greener: Underpinning this initiative is a commitment to plant 10 billion trees across Saudi Arabia by 2030. The aim is to turn the desert green and rehabilitate 40 million hectares of land over the coming decades. Around 10 million trees have already been planted across Saudi under the “Let’s Make it Green” campaign. The $15 billion AlUla Masterplan— the world’s largest oasis project— includes plans to create up to 10 million square meters of green and open spaces. Over four million mangrove trees have been planted by Aramco—two million in 2020 alone—to restore Saudi Arabia’s shoreline mangrove forests. Green Riyadh will transform the city to include 541 square kilometers of green space, 7.5 million trees, and a 1,100 square kilometers green belt stretching through the city.
Protecting Land And Sea: This objective will increase the coverage of protected areas to more than 30% of the total land area in the kingdom. Over the last four years, the percentage of natural reserves in the kingdom has increased from 4% to more than 16%. Around 82,700 square kilometers of land is designated for wildlife protection. Saudi Arabia is also implementing a robust rewilding program, which is reintroducing gazelle and oryx, among other animals, to their native lands. There are 75 areas, including 62 terrestrial and 13 coastal and marine areas, proposed for protection in Saudi Arabia.