According to Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, the country intends to spend more than $300 billion to produce greener electricity and extend its power grid. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman stated during a forum hosted by Saudi Arabia’s largest oil company Aramco that the country was also aiming to become a global leader in the production of hydrogen.

In order to address our goals to achieve greener forms of electricity within the kingdom as well as to extend and modernize the power transmission and distribution grid, he stated, “We are introducing over a trillion riyals worth of investment by 2030.”

In a speech at the seventh annual IKTVA summit in Dhahran, he stated, “On the hydrogen front, we are resolved to be the top exporter as well as availing clean hydrogen for local usages in heavy industries to produce green products.”

The kingdom would also increase its investment in carbon capture technologies.

The Saudi minister declared, “We will never longer build any future power generation without carbon capture.

Saudi Arabia has set a goal of having net zero carbon emissions by 2060, but given how heavily it depends on the export of crude oil, which has long driven its economic growth, it is unlikely that it will soon undergo a significant economic transformation.

The monarchy posted its first budget surplus in nine years in 2022 thanks to rising crude prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, providing it the financial firepower for economic growth.