Renewable energy for green environment in the Eastern Province in KSA: Opportunities and sustainability

Abstract. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in pursuit of its Vision 20230 goals for sustainable energy development, is prepping to generate electricity by shifting away from fossil-fuel based energy and adopting sustainable alternatives along with its new investments. The Eastern Province ranked second in highest energy consumption in the kingdom offers great potential for establishing renewable energy-based power plants due to the abundance of sun energy and wind sources. Moreover, the Biomass process can be an optimal solution for maximum extracted rate of energy. The simulation of two power plants of (1000 KW) and (10,000 KW) capacity, driven by four renewable energy sources 1) Photovoltaic 2) Wind Turbine 3) Solar Thermal and 4) Biomass has been evaluated in RetScreen software in terms of energy performance and environmental impact. The results have shown that the Eastern province has a great opportunity to draw the highest rate of electricity from Biomass for small- and large-scale power plants. In terms of sustainable effects, Wind and Solar thermal largely contribute to the reduction of carbon footprint in the area, and Biomass can play a pivotal role in displacing harmful gases, only if carbon releases are effectively controlled during operation.