Economic and Technical Potential
of Geothermal Energy in the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia
Omar K. M. Ouda, Abdulaziz M. Al-Bassam, and Aref A. Lashin
Abstract
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is almost com-
pletely dependent on fossil fuel to satisfy its energy
demand of all its economic sectors. The KSA vision of
2030 calls for the diversification of energy sources in the
Kingdom. Accordingly, the KSA has launched a promis-
ing plan that aims to gradually power the major industrial
activities in the country by renewable and low-carbon
energy sources. The geothermal sources are among the
promising renewable sources that can support the
achievement of the country vision and energy mix plan.
Saudi Arabia is rich with several geothermal resources
especially in the western and southwestern regions along
the Red Sea area. The potential of the basaltic fields,
called Harrat, that covers more than 80,000 km2 in the
west of the Arabian shield is considered a sizeable
opportunity for producing geothermal power. Harrats are
considered high-enthalpy resources that could be used for
power generation if a comprehensive geothermal resource
assessment was achieved. Moreover, the north and
northwestern parts of the Arabian shield are rich in
high-generating granite which is a type of hot dry rocks
with a huge reserve of stored energy. These granites are
estimated to yield a heat production in the range of 15–
134 lW/m3. This paper provided an overview of the
status of geothermal energy in the world and document
international key challenges for resources development.
O. K. M. Ouda
A. M. Al-Bassam
National Centre for Water Research and Studies,
Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA),
Eastern Ring Road, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
A. A. Lashin (&)
Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Department,
College of Engineering, King Saud University,
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
e-mail: arlashin@ksu.edu.sa
A. A. Lashin
Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Benha University,
P.O. Box 13518 Benha, Egypt
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
V. Naddeo et al. (eds.), Water-Energy-Nexus in the Ecological Transition, Advances in Science,
Technology & Innovation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-00808-5_90
The paper introduced the potential geothermal resources
in the KSA and highlighted the key barrier toward its full
utilizations. Finally, the study recommended the devel-
opment of pilot projects for geothermal energy genera-
tions at the high-technical potential areas. These pilot
projects will contribute to a full assessment of geothermal
energy feasibility in the kingdom and facilitate private
sector investment in geothermal energy production.
Keywords





Renewable energy Geothermal resources Economic
Environment Saudi Arabia
1 Introduction
Renewable energy has received additional momentum in
2015 through adapting the sustainable development goal
(SDG), which calls for substantially increasing the share of
renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030 (United
Nations, 2020). The International Renewable Energy Agency
(IRENA) reported a renewable energy share of electricity
generation in 2018 of about 25% in the total global electricity
generation (The International Renewable Energy Agency
(IRENA) 2018). The total amount of electricity generated
from renewables was 6586 TWh. Renewable hydropower
accounted for about 63% of this (4149 TWh), followed by
wind energy (1263 TWh), solar energy (562 TWh), bioen-
ergy (523 TWh), geothermal energy (88 TWh), and marine
energy (1 TWh) in 2018 (The International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) 2018) (Table 1). The global
weighted-average costs (US$/KWh) of electricity generation
from the various types of renewable sources in 2018 were
bioenergy 0.062; geothermal 0.072; hydro 0.047; solar pho-
tovoltaics 0.085; concentrating solar power 0.185; offshore
wind 0.127; and onshore wind 0.056 (The International
Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) 2018).
391
392 O. K. M. Ouda et al.

Table 1 Renewable energy generation in 2018 per type and region

Region Renewable energy generation (TWh)
Hydro Wind
Bioenergy Solar Geothermal Marine Total
Africa 129 14 3 9 5 160
Asia 1719 440 165 293 26 <1 2644
Central America and Caribbean 29 6 6 3 4 48
Eurasia 266 20 3 8 8 <1 306
Europe 578 384 192 132 13 <1 1298
Middle East 19 1 <1 6 27
North America 710 321 81 90 24 <1 1226
Oceania 44 17 4 10 8 <1 84
South America 655 60 69 11 <1 <1 794
World Total 4149 1263 523 562 88 1 6586
Source Adapted after (The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) 2018)

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is almost com-
pletely dependent on fossil fuel to satisfy the energy demand
of all economic sectors (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Vision,
2020). In April 2016, the KSA launched the Saudi Vision
2030 as a strategic framework to reduce the Kingdom
dependency on oil, diversify its economy, and develop
public services. The Kingdom vision has an impressive plan
to generate up to 9.5 GW of energy from renewable
resources (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Vision, 2020). The
country is going to be completely powered by renewable and
low-carbon forms of energy by the end of the year 2030. So
it has become clear that the KSA is moving forward in
investing in renewable energy including solar, wind,
geothermal, and bioenergy as alternatives to fossil fuels.
Accordingly, the geothermal resources are among the
promising renewable sources that can support the achieve-
ment of the country vision and energy diversification plan.
2 Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy is a renewable energy generated within
the earth and can be transformed into electricity or used
directly for heating (The International Renewable Energy
Agency (IRENA) (2017). Global geothermal energy genera-
tion has grown from about 52 TWh in 2000 to about 92 TWh
in 2019 (International Energy Agency (IEA)) with an average
growth rate of 3.2% (Fig. 1.). With this growth, the
geothermal energy will not achieve the stated SDG 2030
target of producing 282 TWh of energy from geothermal
resources globally. In order to meet the stated target, the
geothermal market needs to grow by, on average, 10.7% per
year over the coming 10 years. Worth to notice that the SDG
2030 target is globally achievable given the following facts.
First, the geothermal power has considerable potential for
growth while the amount of heat within 10,000 m of the
earth’s surface is estimated to yield 50,000 times more energy
than all oil and gas resources. Second, the costs for electricity
generation from geothermal technologies are becoming
increasingly competitive and its cost continues to drop (The
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) (2017);
International Energy Agency (IEA) (2020). Third, the
geothermal energy is available yearlong and around the clock,
and finally, it can be found around the globe.
Geothermal electricity generation and cost rely mainly on
the used technology such as dry steam plants, flash plants
(single, double, and triple), binary plants, and combined-
cycle or hybrid plants. Typical total capital costs for
geothermal power plants range from about 2000 to about
5000 US$ per kilowatt (kW) (The International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) 2018). The U.S. Energy Infor-
mation Administration estimated the capital costs for
geothermal plants that would come online in 2020 in the
USA by about 2680 US$ per kW. The binary plants are
normally more expensive than direct dry steam and flash
plants. The leveled cost of electricity (LCOE) of a
geothermal power plant ranges from 0.04 US$ to 0.14 US$
per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (The International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) 2018). The International Renew-
able Energy Agency conducted cost breakdown analysis
study for two 110 MW geothermal power plants in
Indonesia. The study identified the percentage for cost
components as follows: power plant construction 42%,
production wells 15%, steam field development 14%, con-
tingency 9%, site infrastructure 7%, exploration 4%, injec-
tion wells 4%, project management and engineering
supervision 3%, test wells 1%, and owner’s costs 1% (The
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) (2017).
Economic and Technical Potential of Geothermal Energy in the Kingdom
3 Geothermal Resources in Saudi Arabia
The most promising geothermal sources in Saudi Arabia are
located in the western part of the kingdom represented by the
hydrothermal systems, basaltic fields that cover more than
80,000 km2 and high-heat production granite. Most of the
geothermal resources of Saudi Arabia are associated with
these tectonic and volcanic eruptions (Fig. 2) (Gettings,
1982).
The geothermal sources of Saudi Arabia can be catego-
rized as low, medium, and high-enthalpy resources.
Low-enthalpy resources are accessible with a temperature
range up to 97 °C and represented mainly by thick sedi-
mentary sequence of deep-seated basins in the eastern and
central parts of Saudi Arabia. Medium-enthalpy resources
are represented by the hydrothermal systems and hot springs
that are located along the southwestern coastal plain of Saudi
Arabia, i.e., Al-Lith and Jizan areas. The surface temperature
of these springs reaches up to 96 °C in some locations (Ain
Al Harrah-Al-Lith) (Chandrasekharam et al. 2015a). The
basaltic eruptions that constitute approximately 80,000 km2
of lava fields, known as Harrats are the main figure of Saudi
high-enthalpy resources. The Harrats of Khaybar and Rahat
attain potential geothermal reservoirs with high-heat flow,
good enthalpy, and observed fumarole activity (Pint 2006;
Roobol et al. 1995, 2002). The pre- and post-orogenic
granites, located in the north and northwestern parts of Saudi
Arabia (Midyan and Haal granites), occupying an area of
375 km2, is another high-enthalpy geothermal target. It is
enriched with high uranium, thorium, and potassium con-
centrations with a heat generating capacity range of 15–
134 µW/m3 (Chandrasekharam et al. 2015b).
Geothermal resources of Saudi Arabia can be utilized in
an industrial scale. It can be used for low-grade direct
applications, desalination, and even in energy production.
Fig. 1 Trend of global
geothermal energy generation
(Adapted after (International
Energy Agency (IEA). 2020))
393
The hydrothermal system located in Jizan and Al-Lith areas,
with a surface thermal water temperature up to 96 °C, is a
very promising medium-enthalpy resource. The large
basaltic fields of the Harrats area constitute a favorable target
for geothermal power generation. Harrat Khaybar is the most
interesting due to its wide area of extension and its proximity
to a very densely populated area of the Almadinah Almun-
warah (Roobol et al. 2002; Hussein et al. 2013; Lashin et al.
2014, 2015, 2020; Chandrasekharam et al. 2016). The
Saudi geothermal energy can also be generated from the
high-enthalpy radioactive granites located in the northwest
the Arabian shield (Midyan and Haal granites). It is esti-
mated that this granite can produce up to 160  1012 kWh
of electricity (Chandrasekharam et al. 2015b).
4 Discussion
The study showed the significance of the geothermal energy
in the global energy market. It has several technical, eco-
nomic, and environmental competitive advantages over
almost all types of renewable and non-renewable energy
sources. The global technical potential for electricity gen-
eration from geothermal resources is estimated to be
240 GW with a lower limit of 50 GW and an upper limit
between 1000 and 2000 GW (The International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) (2017). Furthermore, the
geothermal energy production cost is in the lower to medium
range in comparison with other renewable energy sources.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated the
capital costs in US$ per kW for various types of renewable
energy plants that would come online in 2020 in the USA as
follows: biomass 4140; hydropower 2752; wind offshore
5446; wind 1319; solar thermal 7191; solar photovoltaic
1331, and geothermal 2680 (U.S. Energy Information
394
Fig. 2 Map showing the major geothermal resources of Saudi Arabia (Gettings, 1982)
Administration, 2020). Despite these facts, the world is not
progressing to achieve the sustainable development goal for
geothermal energy generation of 282 TWh in 2030. They
key barrier is the relatively the high exploration and drilling
cost which is considered a high risk to both investors and
financial institutions. This risk is due to the high-capital
requirements for the confirmation of resource presence or
exploitability. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not an
exception, and this is a key barrier that hinders the
geothermal energy development in the country. This calls for
introducing a modern financing mechanism such as blended
or green finance coupled with a good risk-sharing scheme
between the governments and investors in order to reduce
the overall risk associated with geothermal energy explo-
ration and development.
The utilization of renewable energy in the KSA is
insignificant to date; only a few pilot level solar and wind
projects are in place at various locations in the Kingdom.
Plans for large-scale projects that focus mainly on solar and
wind sources are in place currently and mainly under fea-
sibility study stage (Ouda et al. 2019). The study shows the
significant potential contribution of the geothermal energy to
O. K. M. Ouda et al.
the country vision 2030 energy mix plan. The study findings
call for pilot projects for geothermal energy generations in
the identified areas in this study (Sect. 3). The pilot projects
will contribute to a full assessment of geothermal energy
feasibility in the kingdom and encourage private sector
investment in geothermal energy production.
5 Conclusion
A review of the geothermal energy global status and
potential in the KSA was carried out based on the available
data and the previous studies. The review shows the
high-potential contribution of geothermal energy to global
energy demand and its competitive advantages over most of
energy sources. The technical potential for geothermal
energy development is the KSA which is very high, and
further, in-depth study including field investigation and pilot
project is still needed to approve its feasibility. The study
shall include a comprehensive evaluation of the potential
economic, social, and environmental benefits of geothermal
energy utilization to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Economic and Technical Potential of Geothermal Energy in the Kingdom
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