Solar street lights in Makkah soon

A Makkah Municipality official said yesterday a project to install a solar-powered street lighting system in Makkah would commence in four months and take about 12 months to complete. The first stage will be experimental and cover three of nine parts of the Crown Prince Plan 9 that covers a total area of about 43 million square meters.
He said the project is now put up for developer and investor bids to provide the city with 30,000 to 40,000 light poles powered by solar energy. The project will be implemented all over the city if the experiment proves successful.
Amin bin Abdulqader Naebalharam, deputy mayor for municipal investment development and chairman of the Solar Energy Committee, said such a project would contribute to reducing costs for companies providing street lighting equipment, in addition to cables, fittings and other requirements, “especially in remote areas.”
The poles would have panels to absorb and store sun’s energy during the day and convert it to light at night. This would reduce consumption of petroleum that is the basis for generating electricity and spare the authorities the high cost of this type of power generation compared to the lower cost of solar-energy power generation, he said.
When the first stage is successfully completed, 150,000 solar-powered light poles will be put up on the streets of Makkah, covering a 180-million square meter area. Developers will be required to use such lighting systems if the experiment is successful.
“We expect to receive good offers as the cost for providing electricity generated by solar energy are decreasing every day. This also applies to equipment and the efficiency of equipment used for that purpose which are in constant improvement and development. In the long-term, we hope that we reduce cost and improve quality.”
Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest oil exporters in the world and it is now investing in solar energy, for which its location provides massive potential. International reports show the country comes second in the world after Atacama Desert in Chile in solar energy potential.
Saudi and International Energy Agency data show the country burned about 192.8 million barrels of crude oil to generate 129 million megawatt in 2010. Data also showed Saudi electricity generation stations pay about $4 per barrel, which means an operational cost of $0.006 per kilowatt/hour (also in 2010.)