Saudi Arabia's superpowered sunshine dream
Saudi Arabia surprised observers earlier this year when it announced a massive renewables deal. But is it doable?
In March, Saudi Arabia and Japan's SoftBank signed a $200bn agreement for the construction of a whopping 200 gigawatts of solar power generation capacity, scheduled for completion in the kingdom by 2030. This would turn the country into the world's largest solar producer. The scale of the project is epic. Equivalent to two-thirds of all the existing solar worldwide, it's about 100 times larger than the next-biggest proposed development—in Australia. Projected output would more than double what the global photovoltaic (PV) industry supplied last year. The project would also overtake the original Saudi target of a far more modest 9.5GW of renewable energy by 2023, as outlined in the country's
Also in this section
1 April 2026
Emerging industry must work with policymakers to convince a broader pool of investors to buy into its long-term potential
12 March 2026
Role of world’s largest carbon cap-and-trade market under scrutiny as war in Iran threatens to drive EU energy costs to unsustainable levels
10 March 2026
Europe urgently needs to bring more projects to FID, as CCS investors warn they might divert capital to faster-growing regions
9 January 2026
A shift in perspective is needed on the carbon challenge, the success of which will determine the speed and extent of emissions cuts and how industries adapt to the new environment
