The PV industry is at a very important juncture, having just passed the cumulative installation of the first TeraWatt and contemplating the possible growth to a multi-TeraWatt annual market. For the first time in its history, the PV industry needs to seriously plan its growth for the next 30 years. The objective of PV deployment toward net-zero emissions, the concentration of PV manufacturing and its supply chain in China, the main characteristics of modern manufacturing, the choice of technology, and the sustainability aspects of PV manufacturing are the current questions that need to be addressed to allow for a rapid but sustainable growth toward a 100% renewable energy economy.

Tracing the history of photovoltaics one can identify key innovations along the way including the development of the diffused silicon solar cell, the emergence of higher efficiency silicon solar cells such as heterojunction, and the emergence of thin film materials. The latest perovskites have emerged as the best option for future high efficiency. These advances when combined with productivity improvements have dramatically driven down the cost of PV-generated energy. The investment profile tells a very different story. Global events have distorted the motivation to decarbonize with energy security toppling the climate crisis for investments. We will comment on how this may impact the drive to net zero. For completeness, the investment needed to scale perovskite technology will be presented.

Solar energy is one of the most cost-effective renewable energy sources and one of the strong pillars of our future global energy supply system. To reduce CO2 emissions, solar installations have to be substantially increased resulting in a very high demand for solar modules. The global module production capacity has to be increased by at least a factor of four in a concise time period of 10 years. This is a global challenge and all industrialized countries such as China, India, Europe, the USA, Middle East are now establishing or reestablishing new multi-tens of GW solar manufacturing capacities. Controlling the value chain as a multi-GW manufacturer is a must to reach the required cost, and quality and to be independent of material cost fluctuations. In the presentation, different approaches to setting up integrated solar manufacturing facilities will be discussed, example cases of newly prepared solar factories outside China will be described and comparative production cost analysis of different regions will be shown.

As a part of GCC countries vision, multiple utility scale solar projects are under development. The number of PV modules expected to access the market exceeds 50 million. This indicates the importance of the third party testing labs to ensure the safety and performance of these PV modules. This presentation will introduce the third party testing scope for PV modules and recommended national deviation developed by GULF RENEWABLE ENERGY LAB in collaboration with SASO.

Saudi Arabia intends to reach a 50% target of renewable share in the power sector by 2030. What are the investments required for such a transition? How will the reliability of the Saudi power sector evolve? Will the storage be needed?

We will attempt to answer these and other questions via various scenarios that account for the uncertainty in weather forecasts.

Given that we are currently discussing a new emerging sector in Saudi Arabia, it is critical to support ensuring operational readiness from a human capital point of view in order to maximize the benefits of localizing renewable energy in KSA. Consequently, we will go over the renewable energy sector's national human capacity-building strategy, including key milestones, challenges, and initiatives to overcome the challenges identified.