Urban Scale Application of Solar PV to Improve Sustainability in the Building and the Energy Sectors of KSA

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is the largest country in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region in terms of population, geographic area, economy, and construction and utility infrastructure. The rapid growth of the building sector in general and residential buildings in particular is creating huge energy and environmental challenges for the country. To address these problems and reduce its reliance on an oil-based energy infrastructure, the country aims to install 9.5 GW of renewable energy by 2030. Traditionally the emphasis has been on large-scale renewable projects. Globally, the recent success of solar energy has been significantly contributed by the application of photovoltaics (PV) in buildings. This is an area that has been overlooked in KSA. This study investigates the prospects of application of PV in buildings to improve the sustainability standards in the building and energy sectors of the country by considering the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) as a case study. PVsyst and RetScreen software programs have been used to model the application of PV on building rooftops in KFUPM. The study also discusses the concerned policy. It is found that the rooftop application of PV can annually produce 37,746 MWh of electricity, meeting over 16% of the KFUPM's total energy requirements.