Abu Dhabi: The Middle East will require additional power capacity of 267 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 as energy demand grows due to increase in population, German company Siemens said on Wednesday announcing its outlook for the energy landscape in the Middle East.
The company said the region’s capacity will grow to 509 gigawatts from 307 gigawatts at present resulting an increase of 66 per cent.
“The Middle East’s growing population increasingly requires reliable and efficient power supply. While the share of renewables in the region’s energy mix is set to increase, we also see natural gas as the main source of power generation by 2030, with energy efficient combined cycle powers plants leading in new capacity additions,” said Dietmar Siersdorfer, CEO of Siemens Middle East and the UAE, while addressing the media in Abu Dhabi.
Though natural gas is expected to be the main source of power generation, solar energy will also gain momentum with around 16GW of capacity additions expected by 2030.
In the UAE, the growth in power demand will be among the highest in the region in the region. By 2030, the country’s installed power generation capacity is expected to reach 60GW comprising of 44GW from combined cycle power plants and remaining 20GW from simple cycle power plants, renewables, nuclear and others.
The UAE is constructing a number of solar plants and four nuclear reactors that will be ready by 2020.
“The UAE has a perfectly strategy to diversify into several fuels. They have very good efficient energy fuel mix to make the power system more efficient and more reliable. But, gas fired power station is still the most economical way to generate power,” he added.
Siemens has power plants in the UAE, Qatar and a number of other countries in the region. In Egypt, the firm is building a total of three natural gas fired plants with a total capacity of 14.4GW. The power plants will increase current generation capacity by up to one third by 2020.
The company said they will continue to invest in Saudi Arabia in the coming days.
