Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia plans to diversify its electricity generation mix with considerable renewable and nuclear capacity.

The GCC nation eyes generating 27.3 gigawatts (GW) by 2023, and 58.7 GW by 2030, according to a recent report released by APICORP.

The kingdom targets generating 17 GW of nuclear by 2040, according to the report entitled “MENA Power – Investment Outlook”.

There is uncertainty regarding the full execution of these nuclear plans due to institutional, regulatory, technical and industrial constraints.

The move comes along with Saudi Arabia’s efforts to increase efficiency in the power sector, the addition of 12 GW of gas-fired plants should increase the share of gas in the generation mix, which in 2017 stood at 32%.

“Saudi Arabia has ambitious plans to increase its gas production from 12.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in 2017 to 23bcf/d by 2026, thus boosting sales gas output to 16.1bcf/d from 8.7bcf/d,” the report highlighted.

The report added that this case is considered switching from oil to gas is strong, given the sizeable reserves and the higher share of liquids in a generation.