With energy prices spiraling, the spotlight has once again turned to renewable energy. And not just a more affordable alternative to oil and gas – but as a source of power that can guarantee energy security. By maximizing the planet’s natural energy supplies, renewable energy can be a sustainable path to security for countries around the world.

Having powered economic growth and development for many decades, fossil fuels today carry many risks. On the one hand, these fuels directly contribute to global warming, hampering efforts to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. And on the other, overdependence on fossil fuels increasingly carries risks to global energy security.

As oil and gas prices have risen, businesses, people and policymakers have been impacted by energy inflation and economic disruption. And while this has put a renewed emphasis on the importance of renewable energy as an affordable and secure solution to sourcing power, the pathway towards an entirely renewable source is still unclear.

At Alfanar Projects, we recognize the importance of renewable energy and its role in securing global energy security. We are already working hard with our partners to deliver solutions that are establishing renewable energy as a vital part of tomorrow’s energy infrastructure.

The risks of fossil fuels

Oil and gas have been the bedrock of economic growth and development for many years. But as a scarce resource heavily concentrated in specific regions, countries without equivalent supplies of natural energy sources are left to import their energy supply from abroad.

And when it comes to importers, many countries reliant on energy from abroad import their energy from neighboring countries. In 2020, for instance, around three quarters of all the EU’s oil and gas imports came from neighboring countries, especially Russia.

But with oil and gas prices spiking, and energy security now a pressing issue in many countries, this existing architecture of energy exporting and importing is being disrupted. For many, green energy represents the most obvious solution to localizing energy production and achieving energy security.

To ensure businesses and people can count upon reliable energy at all times, certain states have sought to counteract shortfalls in the supply of green energy by doubling down on domestically sourced fossil fuels. While offering an immediate way of guaranteeing energy supply, the environmental risks of intensifying oil production only reinforce the damaging effect on the environment. With UN ambitions to halve carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, leveraging existing energy sources as a stop-gap makes it even more unlikely the world will meet this target.

What are the renewable energy solutions?

With global agreements pushing states away from carbon-intensive sources of energy and towards circular and renewable energies, significant investment and funding for renewable energy production is driving innovation in clean energy. Unlike other types of power, renewables can be produced in multiple different locations, making it a less geographically concentrated type of energy. In principle, many renewables can be produced anywhere – potentially meaning countries would be less dependent on energy from elsewhere.

Moreover, as fossil fuel prices soar, renewables remain a much more affordable type of energy. And thanks to continuous innovations, they are only becoming cheaper. Solar energy is one such area where efficiencies are improving. While low-efficiency solar cells have been used for years, over the past decade, innovations in solar energy have increased dramatically. Using certain prototypes, researchers are now achieving solar conversion efficiencies of 47.1% – double the efficiency of many photovoltaic models today. And, according to the World Economic Forum, the price of solar over the past 10 years has fallen 80%.

Driven by these cost-efficiencies, solar farms and plants are providing more solar energy to populations than ever before. At Alfanar Projects, we were proud to have contributed 50 MW to Benban Solar PV Park – one of the largest solar parks in the world.

But while renewables are a more attractive way of meeting the world’s energy commitments, there are some practical issues still to overcome.

Despite the exponential growth in funding and production, renewable energy on its own is not yet capable of powering whole societies. Although renewables can be produced in many different areas, the inherent volatility of weather patterns means there won’t always be guaranteed renewable energy to count on.

And while integrated renewable energy grids could provide a solution, such technology isn’t yet ready and can’t be rolled out at scale.

How is Saudi Arabia achieving renewable energy security?

Saudi Arabia is already the largest global exporter of crude oil. But as a vital energy exporter to the world, the Kingdom is now looking to leverage the latest advances in green energy to source more sustainable fuel supplies.

As outlined in the Saudi Vision 2030 initiative, the kingdom is aiming to generate 50% of its energy through renewable resources by 2030. To achieve this aim, the kingdom is investing heavily in infrastructure projects designed to increase its production of renewable energy.

As part of the Vision 2030 scheme, major urban developments, such as NEOM’s The Line, will support its nine million inhabitants with 100% clean energy using a range of different methods, including solar and wind.

In September 2022, five more major wind and solar energy projects were announced for construction in the KSA. When completed, these plants will produce 3,300 megawatts of renewable energy.

While at the same time scaling up its production of renewables, the Kingdom also has ambitions to become the largest supplier of hydrogen in the world. Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water with electrolysis, which creates both hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be used for energy, while oxygen can be safely vented into the atmosphere. Unlike other renewable energy sources which can vary significantly, green hydrogen can use water reserves or recycled water to generate energy. Created by using naturally occurring supplies of water, green hydrogen offers a reliable way of creating energy that isn’t dependent on the unreliability of weather patterns. In other words, green hydrogen can provide a guaranteed source of green energy that can be reliably produced domestically.

The NEOM Green Hydrogen project is the world’s largest utility-scale green hydrogen plant. It will integrate up to 4 GW of solar and wind energy to produce up to 600 tonnes per day of carbon-free hydrogen by the end of 2026, in the form of green ammonia as a cost-effective solution for the transportation and industrial sectors globally.

Moreover, when produced at scale, the costs of green hydrogen are amongst the lowest energy costs in the world. Global hydrogen prices typically sit between $2 and $7 per kilogram. However, in the KSA, the mass production of this green energy could reach only $1 per kilogram – making it renewable, affordable and a secure source of energy for the kingdom’s population as it increasingly looks to capitalize on the opportunities of renewable energy.