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Solar Arabia conference aims to invest in Saudi solar energy

Speakers at the Solar Arabia conference in Riyadh emphasised the important role solar energy should play in meeting the Saudi Arabia's energy needs.

The two-day event which ended on Tuesday (October 28) was designed to facilitate communication and commerce between Saudi Arabian project developers and business leaders and international manufacturers and service providers.

With Saudi Arabian power consumption growing, a speaker from the Saudi Electricity Company said solar power was becoming essential.

"Solar energy is a must, not a choice for any one. The SEC (Saudi Electricity Company) having this year a peek load of 57GW. It is expected to increase to about 120GW by 2032, so there is a concern from other government agencies," said Hamed el Saggaf, executive director for the Independent Power Plants Program and the Renewable Energy Sector at the Saudi Electricity Company.

While many of the attendees at the conference were there to sell or buy solar energy products, some went to Solar Arabia to gather information about solar power.

Hassan Abdullah from the Saudi Consulting Service visited the exhibition to explore ways to integrate solar energy systems into his company's current projects.

"The information that I'm trying to know is how to take advantage of solar energy systems in the projects that I supervise. Whether in the use of solar energy to generate electricity, or in water heating, or the use of solar energy in the air conditioning systems where we can save a lot by using solar energy," he said.

Solar energy is big business in Saudi Arabia. In 2012 the government announced it would be investing 109 billion US dollars in solar power over twenty years, making the country one of the world's largest emerging renewable energy markets.

Wolfgang Schlafer, CEO from the Common-Link interactive technology company, came to Solar Arabia with a product that he says is suited to the Saudi market.

"In solar energy projects, especially in big ones, you have very difficult to find out problems if they occur, and for that we bring robust and reliable products where it is very easy to find out problem as soon as it occurs especially in the harsh environment of the desert of Saudi Arabia," he said.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, plans to generate a third of its electricity from solar energy by 2032 to partly offset approximately 100 billion US dollars of annual export revenues lost due to domestic oil consumption.

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