Alternative Energy System

Abstract

The population of Saudi Arabia has jumped from 3.2 Million in 1950 to 31.7 Million in 2015; approximately 10 times more, therefore, the energy demands have been increasing to meet the need of the nation.  As a result, the domestic oil demand is increasing to respond to the population growth.  There are several reasons beyond the huge domestic energy demands for Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Arabia is well known of its lack of fresh water sources; since there is no rivers and not much rain fall. Consequently the Saudi government built many desalination plants to supply its nation with the water and some of them are still under contracture (Bloomberg.com, 2014). As a sequence, the energy demands will increase to operate and maintain those desalination plants beside transportation, industrial and residential sectors. Saudi Arabia is ranked as the biggest producer of desalinated water worldwide through 27 desalination plants nationwide with a capacity of 1.06 Billion Cubic meters of water associated with using 240,000 barrels of oil. The kingdom produces % 18 of the total global production of the desalinated water (Alyaum.com, 2015).  Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is ranked as the third-largest global producer of basic petrochemical ethylene (hydrant.co.uk, 2014); which requires a lot of energy to produce the material.

Keywords: energy demands, domestic oil demand, petrochemical ethylene