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LESSONS LEARNED FROM SOLAR ENERGY

PROJECTS IN SAUDI ARABIA

F.S. HURAIB, S.M. HASNAIN, and S.H. ALAWAJI

Energy Research Institute (ERI)


King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST)
PO Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT:

This paper describes the lessons learned from the major RD&D activities at Energy Research
Institute (ERI), King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST) in the field of solar
energy. Photovoltaic, solar thermal dishes, solar water heating, solar water pumping and
desalination, solar hydrogen production and utilization are some of the areas studied for solar
energy applications. Recommendations and guidelines for future solar energy research,
development, demonstration and dissemination in Saudi Arabia are also given.

KEYWORDS:

Saudi Arabia, photovoltaic, solar thermal, solar desalination, solar hydrogen, solar & wind
Atlas, fuel cells.

INTRODUCTION:

Saudi Arabia has enormous oil reserves, which will someday be depleted, however, she is
blessed with another copious source of energy, which cannot be exhausted: the light and heat of
the sun. The harnessing of solar energy in Saudi Arabia would be of great value due to the
following reasons:

• The majority of the population is concentrated in urban areas, but its remaining
inhabitants are scattered in small nomadic communities, where energy consumption is
very low. It is not economically viable, and sometimes not possible, to connect those
communities with the electric grid.
• In mountainous regions, fuel transportation, telecommunication and power transmission
are difficult.
Therefore, decentralized systems are required, which can be appropriately accommodated by
solar energy. For urban and industrial applications, hot water can be produced through an
efficient solar water heating system that could conserve enormous amounts of electricity. Solar
energy systems could also provide cathodic protection from corrosion of oil well casings and
pipelines throughout the country.
Because of its potential, solar energy research in Saudi Arabia is being conducted by the King
Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh. KACST has a number of
joint programs in the field including SOLERAS with the United States of America and
HYSOLAR with the Federal Republic of Germany. The major RD&D work in the field of solar
energy in Saudi Arabia is being conducted by the Energy Research Institute (ERI) at KACST
(Alawaji 1995). Following is the discussion of the present status of solar energy projects
executed by the ERI. Table 1 shows a list of major projects with important details.

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RD&D PROJECTS AT THE ENERGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE:

Solar Village Project. The Solar Village is situated about 50 km north-west of Riyadh
(Altitude 650m, Latitude 24.54:47N, Longitude 46.24:21E) and is representative of a typical
Saudi Arabian location. The Solar Village Photovoltaic Power System (PVPS), consisting of a
350 kW PV concentrator field, was completed by SOLERAS in 1981 (Williamson and Key
1987). This PVPS has been operating very well in the hot desert environment since its
inception, however the net permanent power is degraded by 20% due to the solar cell / ceramic
substrates solder joint delimination problem by the daily thermal cycling and fatigue, short
circuit problems, and water penetration/condensation inside the modules. The temperature of
the cells was found excessively higher than the original designed value, and the heat sink
assembly were not enough to cool down the cells. In general, the experience acquired through
the execution of this project is very significant to understanding, maintaining and advancing the
technology.

Table 1. List of Solar Energy Projects executed by Energy Research Institute, KACST

PROJECTS LOCATION DURATION APPLICATIONS


1. 350 kW PV System (2155 Solar Village 1981-87 DC/AC Electricity for Remote Area
MWh)
2. 350 kW PV Hydrogen Solar Village 1987-93 Demonstration Plant for Solar
Production Plant (1.6 MWh) Hydrogen Production
3. Solar Cooling Saudi Universities 1981-87 Developing of Solar Cooling
Laboratory
4. 1 kW Solar Hydrogen Solar Village 1989-93 Hydrogen Production, Testing &
Generator (20-30 kWh) Measurement Laboratory Scale
5. 2 kW Solar Hydrogen KAU, Jeddah 1986-91 Testing of Different Electrode Materials
(50 kWh) for Solar Hydrogen Plant
6. 3 kW PV Test System Solar Village 1987-90 Demonstration of Climatic Effects
7. 4 kW Photovoltaic System South of the 1996 DC/AC Electricity Remote Areas
country
8. 6 kW PV System Solar Village 1996-97 Grid connection
9. PV Water Desalination Sadous Village 1994-96 PV/RO Interface
(0.6 m3/hour)
10. Photovoltaics in Agriculture Muzahmia 1996 DC/AC Grid Connected
(4 kWp)
11. Long-term Performance of PV Solar Village Since 1990 Performance Evaluation
(3 kW)
12. Fuel Cell Development Solar Village 1993-95 Hydrogen Utilization
(100 - 1000 W)
13. Internal Combustion Engine Solar Village 1993-95 Hydrogen Utilization
(ICE)
14. Solar Radiation Measurement 12 stations 1994-95 Saudi Solar Atlas
15. Wind Energy Measurement 5 stations 1994-95 Saudi Solar Atlas
16. Geothermal Power Different locations 1995-96 Establishment of Accurate Data
Assessment
17. Solar Dryers Al-Hassa, Qatif 1988-93 Food Dryers e.g, dates, vegetables
18. Solar Thermal Dishes (2x50 Solar Village 1986-94 Advanced Solar Stirling Engine
kW)
19. Energy Management in Dammam 1988-93 Energy Conservation
Buildings
20. Solar Collectors Development Solar Village 1993-97 Domestic, Industrial, Agricultural

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Solar Powered Water Desalination Projects. A solar thermal seawater desalination pilot plant
was completed by SOLERAS in 1984 in Yanbu. It uses an indirect contact heat transfer freeze
process to produce 200 m3 of potable water per day. The operation, maintenance, and
performance results enabled collector component manufacturers to use the project as test bed
for new concepts. A glass manufacturer investigated solution to mirror edge protection against
environment. Other organizations learned more about the freeze desalination process and
developed new commercial equipment. This plant, however, was closed down for economic
reasons (Huraib 1989).
A PV powered brackish water desalination plant was installed in 1994 at Sadous Village in
collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), USA. The plant has
two separate PV fields. One (980 Wp) is to energize a submersible pump for pumping water
from a well, and the other (10.08 kWp) is to provide power to a reverse osmosis unit (R.O.U)
and to other accessories and equipment. The preliminary investigation has shown an excellent
overall performance of PV plant for water pumping and desalination, however, the potable
water recovery rate is only about 30%. Further work is underway in order to increase this
recovery rate. Simultaneously, a separate study also seeks to incorporate a solar thermal
desalination system (probably a pilot plant of solar stills) with the existing PV powered R.O.U
in order to use the high rejection rate of brine (70% of input water to R.O.U) for water
distillation.
Solar Thermal Dish Project. An initial joint program with Germany aims to produce a 100
kWe with two thermal dishes. It involved the development, construction and testing of two 17
meter diameter large scale membrane solar concentrators. Results revealed that development of
smaller diameter thermal dishes would be more appropriate for remote applications due to the
operational and maintenance problems and cost effectiveness, therefore, work on large
diameter dishes has been concluded.
350 kW Solar Hydrogen Production Project. A 350 kW solar hydrogen production plant
(HYSOLAR program) has been installed to demonstrate the safe and reliable production of
hydrogen from solar energy in the technical scale. This plant uses the DC electricity being
produced by the 350 kW PV field / AC power from grid supply through the rectifier. The
electricity is used by advanced alkaline water electrolyze (0.25m2 of electrode area, 120 cells)
to produce 463 cubic meters of hydrogen per day at normal pressure. Results show that
following improvements are required: (a) hardware improvement of PV-field and electrolyze,
(b) improvement of the AC power supply for the rectifier, and (c) installation of a new
pressurized air system and adaptation of specific measurement techniques.
Solar Hydrogen Utilization Projects. The R&D work on phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFC)
using hydrogen has successfully progressed in the past four years in the development of a
100W and 0.25 kW stacks from half and mono cells. Valuable experience such as acid
management techniques, and control of leakage of hydrogen gas and intermixing of hydrogen
and air in the cells of the stack due to lack of electrolyte in the matrix, etc., led to an improved
design and fabrication of the 1 kW PAFC stack. These lessons will be useful for scale-up of
power generating modules (10-50 kW) for power utility applications in remote areas of Saudi
Arabia.
In another hydrogen utilization activity, locally available internal combustion engines and
ceramic mantle gas lamps have been modified to use hydrogen as a fuel for small scale
demonstration purposes. A commercial thermoelectric power generator originally designed to
be fueled by methane or propane has been modified to run using hydrogen. Safe and reliable
utilization of hydrogen has been demonstrated. Most of the required components used in these
activities have been designed and fabricated locally at ERI, therefore, the staff of the ERI has
gained professional experience in this field.
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Solar Water Heating Project. KACST has introduced individual units of a forced closed type
solar water heating system (SWHS)for domestic water heating. More than 1100 solar flat plate
collectors have been installed on the rooftop of 373 residences in KACST’s campus in Riyadh
(Alathel 1996). The use of imported SWHS in this project constraint many problems, therefore,
a theoretical and experimental study on the development of SWHS has begun. In this study, a
number of suitable SWHS will be designed and fabricated using locally available material and
field tested for all seasons. Results will help interested industries in mass production and
commercialization. The preliminary results show that the final cost of locally fabricated and
field tested SWHS will be about 70% cheaper than the imported SWHS.
Photovoltaic Research Projects. KACST has used the PV system to power highway devices in
various remote locations within the Kingdom. The most significant projects are the lighting
systems for two remote tunnels located in the southern mountains of Saudi Arabia, however, a
significant degradation of the system outputs was experienced during operation. The failure
could be due to the design of the system, a type or specification of particular elements.
Maintenance difficulties resulted in discontinuing of the project.
A 3 kW photovoltaic power system was installed at the solar village site for evaluation of
orientation, tracking, reliability, dust and temperature of PV modules on efficiency and energy
output. It has been found that, the best tilt angle for fixed PV modules (facing south) to produce
substantial amount of energy annually is equal to 25o±10., and accumulation of dust on the
panels reduced efficiency. Performance evaluation of various other photovoltaic flat-plate and
concentrator module technologies are conducted on a continues basis. Recently, a 6 kW PV
system was also installed in order to evaluate a scheme for a PV system to integrate with
electric grid, especially during peak hours for electric load leveling purposes.
Solar & Wind Energy Resources Assessment Projects. Reliable quantitative data on the daily
and annual distribution of solar energy and potential of wind energy at given locations is
essential for assessing the economic feasibility of solar energy utilization. It has been found
that the existing Saudi solar radiation atlas does not cover all the areas of the Kingdom and
even it does not contain reliable information required for solar energy application. Similarly,
data recorded in the existing wind atlas is not reliable enough to determine the wind potential.
Therefore, two separate projects in solar wind energy assessment has been initiated by the ERI
in order to record reliable data and to asses the wind potential of Saudi Arabia. The installation
of assessment equipment is in progress in different parts of the country. Solar and wind atlas
will be compiled.
GUIDELINES FOR FUTURE WORK:

In spite of the technical viability and the great potential of various solar energy technologies,
their use remains limited. The main constraints in the use of solar energy are the higher cost
and the lower conversion efficiency. One of the most important factors to reduce cost and
increase conversion efficiency is the performance of various basic materials used in solar
devices. Extensive research must be carried out for various solar energy devices, as well as
basic materials such as coating materials, and polycrystalline silicon and non-crystalline silicon
materials. Detailed studies must be conducted to assess the cultural, social and economical field
of acceptance of solar energy technologies in different population groups. Economic
competitiveness, lack of consumer awareness and lack of information concerning performance,
durability, reliability and cost effectiveness of solar energy technologies under actual climatic
conditions are the barriers to the use of solar energy. Once these barriers are overcome, there
will be a promising future for solar energy technologies in Saudi Arabia.

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CONCLUDING REMARKS:

KACST has achieved a success in joint international programs in the advancement of solar
energy technology and transfer thereof. It has learned several administrative and management
type of lessons from operating these programs. Those lessons may be concluded as:

• Shared funding is more productive than one source funding,

• Substantial impact on program output may result, if the program objectives are not
arrayed clearly according to importance,

• Less official involvement in ever day administration of the program helps in speed up
generating results,

• Involvement of individuals, rather than commercial organizations, for carrying out


the required R&D work is more effective in spreading the developed technologies to
others,

Nevertheless, the experiences gained during the international joint programs assist in
establishment of a series of independent solar energy projects at ERI, KACST.

REFERENCES:

• Alathel, S. A. (1996), Solar Energy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. International


Journal of Global Energy Issues, (in press).

• Alawaji, S. H.(1995), Renewable Energy Research Programs at KACST, Proceeding


of the Workshop on Solar Energy Systems-Water Pumping and Desalination,
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, pp. 2-14.

• Huraib, F.S. (1989), Solar Energy Applications is Saudi Arabia. Presented at the
symposium on Space Commercialization: Roles of Developing Countries, Nashville,
Tennessee, USA.

• William, J.S. and W.P. Key (1987), Executive Summary SOLERAS Program
Overview. Midwest Research Institute, Boulevard, Missouri, USA.

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