Industrial Engineering

Biography

Biography: Majid Jaridi

Abstract

Saudi Arabia is a nation that has been exploring the potential of renewable energy for many years. Saudi authorities, scientists and researchers view renewable energy as a preferable long-term energy strategy. Despite this, because Saudi Arabia is one of the leading oil producing nations and relies heavily on it as a form of energy, solar energy has not been given much serious consideration. Solar and wind energy are the best sources of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia; however, because of the large amount of oil in the country, most do not want to explore the option of renewable energy. Hence, it is essential to explore the alternative sources to insure reliable supply for potential future need. The main objectives of this research were to: Establish the potential of solar and wind energy generation as a suitable, cost-effective alternative to petroleum products and; to establish the potential for maximizing renewable power generation to support the grid supply to Saudi cities. We developed three different forecasting models for 32 Saudi cities: the decomposition method, multiple linear regressions (linear trend model) and multiple linear models (seasonal model). We then selected a preferred model that can best forecast the amount of renewable energy capacity in the forecasting horizon. Using software written for this research, we developed an economic model to evaluate the cost of generation and transmission of solar as well as wind energy at the selects cities in Saudi Arabia.