Saudi Arabia plans to invest more than $266 billion in producing “cleaner” electricity and expanding its power grid, the kingdom’s energy minister said on Monday, as quoted by AFP.

At a forum organized by Saudi oil giant Aramco, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman added that the world’s largest exporter of crude oil also wants to become a world leader in hydrogen production.

The $266 billion planned to be invested “until 2030” is aimed at “fulfilling our plans to create less polluting forms of electricity in the kingdom and to expand and modernize the electricity transmission and distribution network,” he said.

“In terms of hydrogen, we are determined to become a major exporter and also provide clean hydrogen for local use in heavy industry to produce green products,” he told a forum in Dhahran, in the east of the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia also wants to step up efforts to find solutions for carbon sequestration.

“In the future, we will not build any more power plants without carbon capture,” the Saudi minister said.

Despite its goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2060, Saudi Arabia remains heavily dependent on the crude oil exports that fueled its economic growth for decades, raising doubts about its potential to reorganize its economy in the short term.

Source: Dreamtime