Abstract
In Saudi Arabia, domestic consumption of fossil fuel is expected to grow from 3.4MBOE (Million Barrels of Oil Equivalent) to 8.3MBOE by 2028; peak power demand from 55GW to 121GW by 2030. About 61GW of demand appears unmet by the output of planned projects. In response, KACARE (King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, the nation’s energy policy maker) has announced the target of installing 41GW of solar capacity by 2030 (24GW by 2020). Deployment of so much solar power requires a substantial, locally trained, technical workforce. A lower bound estimate of 8.9 persons/MW of Solar PV and 3.04 persons/MW of Solar Thermal can be taken for manufacturing, operations and maintenance. This conservative figure would mean employment for 218,650 workers by 2030. This would require the 24 local universities to graduate 14,577 technically qualified workers annually for the next 15 years (607 graduates per year per university). Even assuming a 50% import of technical manpower, the above estimate can be revised as 303 graduates per university per year. The need for so many technical workers makes it imperative for local universities to immediately ramp up their capacity to graduate technical workforce.
•A review was made for manpower requirement of solar projects.•Manpower requirement was suggested for the Solar Target 2030 of 41GW for Saudi Arabia.•Role of universities was elaborated in achieving tis manpower requirement.