Geothermal Power Sources of Saudi Arabia - Country Update Report

Abstract

In terms of energy, the Saudi Arabian land is gifted with huge resources of petroleum, natural gas, and solar energy. It also holds bright prospects of exploiting the other forms of energy such as the wind energy, nuclear energy, and the geothermal energy, because of its variety of geological features and environments. With respect to geothermal resources, there are 10 hot springs with varying deep temperatures of 50 to 120?C and different flow rates. In addition to this, there are three major harrats namely Khaybar, Kishb, and Rahat of geothermal interest. The crust thickness in these areas varies between 20 and 40 km and its lower part consists of mafic meta-igneous granulites. As of today, none of these are being used as source of electricity generation or heating purposes. It is believed that some of the thermal water springs can be utilized for electricity generation purposes in the time to come.