(42c) Determination of the Best Energy Storage Technology for Power Produced from Renewable Resources in Saudi Arabia

Despite the fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest producer and exporter of oil in the world, the kingdom plans to boost its dependence on renewable energy resources. Saudi Arabia plans to install about 54 GW of its generation capacity using renewable energy resources by the year 2032. This generation from clean energy meets more than 30 percent of the Kingdom's needs of electricity. The proposed plans fulfil the Kingdom international obligations towards the global emission reduction and are in line with the recommendations of the recent report of the United Nations on climate change that is long overdue and stresses the need to move away from the use of carbon-based fuels. In addition to conventional energy resources such as oil and gas, Saudi Arabia is privileged with many renewables energy resources (solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal) that must be utilized in the development of the country and to fulfil its international environmental obligations. As well known, renewable energy sources can be utilized in various ways to produce electricity, but the biggest obstacle lies in their operation and management. Renewable energy resources are irregular energy sources, and it is difficult to predict their availability such as wind speed, for example. This paper presents a comprehensive technical and economic study on modern energy storage technologies and sets the basis for the selection of the best energy storage technologies to be implemented with the new installation of many renewable energy plants in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Technologies of energy storage systems are described thoroughly and compared on the basis of many different parameters, such as capacity, storage power, response time, discharge time, and lifetime. The paper also, investigates the technical and environmental suitability of these technologies for different applications in the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom is a large country with diverse geographical terrain, the type of the energy storage technology suitable for each region in the country is determined. Other challenges that face the implementation of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia and suggested solutions for them are also presented in this paper.