The developer of a large tourism project on the west coast of Saudi Arabia plans to build Saudi Arabia's first desalination plant powered by solar and wind energy. After completion, the nuclear power plant built by the Red Sea Development Company and renewable drinking water expert "Yuan Global" will become the largest plant of its kind in the world.

According to Ahmed Ghazi Darwish, Chief of Staff of the Red Sea Development Corporation, the plant plans to produce 2 million bottles of water a year and will begin to produce 300,000 bottles of water a year in the next few years. Dawish said that at least one-third of the work in the factory will be reserved for Saudi citizens, who will receive training on site. According to the company's website, the plant will use "water panel" solar technology to produce water, which extracts water vapor from the air and converts it into drinking water.

As part of the sustainable model, reusable bottles will be used to help achieve carbon neutrality. Approximately 100 hydroelectric panels were built during the first phase of construction. In the second and third phases, an additional 1,200 panels will be added. Davis said that the performance of the panel will be monitored through a smart application that will display the amount of water produced, the panel's impact on the environment, and issue maintenance alerts. The desalination technology comes entirely from Saudi companies.

Desalination

Saudi Arabia has always been a world leader in desalination technology and has some of the largest factories. The Al Jubeil plant north of Dammam on the Arabian Gulf coast produces 1.4 million cubic meters per day. The Red Sea Development Corporation obtained 14.12 billion Saudi Riyals ($3.76 billion) in funding for the project through the first local-denominated green financing credit facility.

Developers raise capital through term loans and revolving credit loans from four Saudi banks (Saudi Bank, Riad Bank, Saudi British Bank and Saudi National Bank) to finance the construction of multi-billion dollar tourism projects on the west coast of Saudi Arabia. The Red Sea Development Company is owned by the Kingdom Public Investment Fund. As part of the first phase, it is developing 16 hotels with 3000 rooms on 5 islands and 2 inland points.

Keywords: new energy

The Red Sea project is located between the coastal cities of Umluj and Al Wajh. It covers an area of 30,000 square kilometers and includes a natural archipelago composed of pristine islands and a vast desert landscape full of mountain peaks, historical and archeological treasures, and dormant volcanoes. According to Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification plan, the country will need a lot of water—at least 50,000 cubic meters of water per day for the Red Sea tourism project alone. Editor/XuNing、Design/WangXia