Saudi Arabia just activated the largest single solar installation ever built — 300 square kilometers of Neom desert covered with 9 million panels generating clean electricity for 5 million homes from nothing but desert sunshine.
The Neom Solar Mega-Complex Phase 2 covers a continuous 300-square-kilometer expanse of flat Tabuk Province desert with single-axis tracking bifacial panels that follow the sun from dawn to dusk, capturing direct overhead radiation on their upper face and reflected desert ground radiation on their lower face simultaneously. Located at 1,400 meters elevation where the atmosphere is thinner and solar radiation intensity 12 percent higher than sea level, the installation generates 4,200 megawatts at peak capacity — more than four nuclear reactors combined from a single desert site. Saudi Arabia's interior desert receives 3,200 hours of annual sunshine with virtually zero cloud cover, giving the installation a capacity factor of 32 percent — exceptionally high for any solar installation anywhere on Earth.
The project required 28,000 workers over three years and 47 million tons of structural steel, with panels imported from Saudi Arabia's own new solar manufacturing plants rather than from overseas suppliers for the first time. Transmission infrastructure carries generated electricity 380 kilometers to Riyadh and Jeddah through a dedicated 500-kilovolt direct current line losing only 2.8 percent of energy over that distance.
Saudi Arabia plans three additional mega-complexes of comparable scale by 2030, targeting 50 percent renewable electricity nationally from desert solar alone.
Source: ACWA Power Saudi Arabia, Saudi Vision 2030 Renewable Energy Program, Saudi Electricity Company, 2025
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten