Assessing residential solar rooftop potential in Saudi Arabia using nighttime satellite images: A study for the city of Riyadh

Abstract The Saudi National Renewable Energy Program aims to substantially increase the share of renewable energy in the Kingdom's power generation mix. This study explores the extent to which solar rooftop deployment at the residential scale in Riyadh, could be cost-efficient and could accelerate decarbonization of in Saudi Arabia. This study found that the maximum aggregate solar power capacity in Riyadh at the residential level would be around 400 MW. Also, the current residential electricity tariff does not incentivize photovoltaic (PV) solar rooftop deployment. Despite an increase in Saudi residential electricity prices in January 2018, rooftop solar PV cannot compete with electricity from the grid, even assuming aggressive reductions in the investment cost of solar technology.