Comments on: It Must be Peak Oil Driving Saudis to Solar

By: Corrie Block

Corrie Block — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:33:57 +0000

To power water desalination with oil based fuels is uneconomical. It’s a recipe for dirty, expensive water. The only reason some Arab states can do it is because they cost estimate their fuels for desalination at the price as pumped from the ground. This is lost revenue. If they priced according to the market, they would realize that it is likely cheaper to buy gold than clean water. They do have a lot of sunlight though, a switch in energy there would bring the costs down significantly.

By: pjc

pjc — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:24:14 +0000

I think you are on to something, but the truth is the opposite of what you think.

With enhanced oil recovery, the Saudi’s oil reserves expand dramatically. EOR requires more input energy. The Saudis are positioning themselves to eventually use solar as the input energy.

Those – Saudi solar means many more years of happy motoring. Sorry if you were expecting otherwise.

By: SaudiSun

SaudiSun — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:51:33 +0000

We should clarify that the $0.25/kWh only applies to the cost of producing electricity using diesel-fired generators in remote locations during peak summer demand period. It applies to less than 1% of the electricity production in Saudi. Overall, it costs Saudi an average of $0.06/kWh to produce electricity using conventional fuels.

The cost of producing solar power in Saudi is roughly $0.20/kWh.

Therefore, it makes sense why Saudi has not rushed to embrace solar yet. As the price of solar power continues to go down we will certainly see more solar plants popping up all over Saudi. But, like with most things in the Gulf, this will take some time.

By: Oman Holidays

Oman Holidays — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:41:16 +0000

however , next door in Oman there appears to be minimal solar power , wave power or wind power – all of which are here in abundance. Oman appears to be relying on gas imports from near neighbours to power heavy industry and local electricity plants.

By: MrEnergyCzar

MrEnergyCzar — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:28:22 +0000

More importantly, the Saudi’s are drilling offshore now…. Scary. I’ve been preparing my family for Peak Oil for 4 years now and made some helpful videos for people interested… I attached one of them here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHmXhgBhtWk

MrEnergyCzar