Saudi Arabia is planning to build the worlds largest solar power plant

[brooklynite]

Source: Curbed

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s biggest exporters of oil and natural gas. Now, the country is in talks to develop the world’s largest solar power plant. Mohammed Bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and SoftBank have entered an agreement to develop a $200 billion solar power plant that’s anticipated to be up and fully running by 2030.

The proposed plant would generate 200 gigawatts of solar power, which is approximately double the amount of solar energy produced globally last year and more than 100 times as large as the new next biggest solar plant project, according to Bloomberg. The plan is to build the plant in Saudi Arabia’s vast desert, which gets above-average amounts of sunshine.

Though it’s still in the planning phase, proponents of the plan are already boasting about its value, which would reportedly generate more than 100,000 jobs. No telling how large a solar power plant of this size would be, but some estimate it could stretch for an area larger than most big cities. Stay tuned.

Read more: https://www.curbed.com/2018/4/3/17186292/saudi-arabia-largest-solar-power-plant

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Better than a nuclear plant . . . . .

[Massacure]

8. Saudi Arabia has plans to seek bids for two reactors by the end of this year

[packman]

2. Planning for the future

when oil runs out, they'll still have energy to use and sell. Good planning.

[Plucketeer]

3. Yup!

and where the FUCK is that sorta "vision" in this (great) country?????

[Grins]

4. Meanwhile....

03 April 2018:

"EPA administrator Scott Pruitt announced revisions to vehicle fuel emissions standards Tuesday, a day after the Trump administration announced its intentions to roll back signature Obama-era greenhouse gas and fuel emissions standards for cars and light trucks. Pruitt is made the announcement in Chantilly, Va., not far from D.C., with his comments capped on either end by automotive executives."

Nice.

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/scott-pruitt-epa-vehicle-fuel-emission-standards-obama-era-announcement-today-live-stream/

[malthaussen]

5. Why not?

They've got plenty of empty land in the Arabian Peninsula.

-- Mal

[rickford66]

6. Why can't Trump jaw-bone them into using coal ?

Isn't that the future Donnie ?

[NickB79]

7. 200 GW is around 30 nuclear or coal plants

Given the 30% capacity factor of solar. That's a lot of juice.

I wonder if they'll be adding any battery storage systems as well?

[Massacure]

9. I don't now about Saudi Arabia's plans for battery storage, but...

200 GW is a crazy stupid amount of power for Saudi Arabia when their total generating capacity at the moment is about 70 GW. I'm curious what their plan is for the other 130 GW.

[NickB79]

10. I made a dumb mistake, it's actually 60 conventional power plants worth

At first I thought the link said 100 GW of solar, not 200.

But there isn't an "extra"amount of electricity; the functional output will be around 60-75 GW due to capacity factor. 200 GW is nameplate capacity.

And yeah, that is still a ton of power though.

[jmowreader]

11. They'd almost have to

Solar panels don't generate electricity at night, when some of the biggest uses of electricity come on.

[patricia92243]

12. But, but, but we are building a wall - isn't that just as important? (sarcasm)

[Bengus81]

13. We could build one in the Nevada desert that would make this one look small..............

Want to spend some "infrastructure" money then do it by running the needed power lines. Of course in THIS Country that's all a pipe dream.