Saudi Arabia intends to depend heavily on solar energy to operate desalination plants instead of oil and gas as part of its efforts to make use of alternative and renewable energy sources. Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen has disclosed plans to set up a new solar-powered desalination plant within 18 months. On Wednesday, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), which runs more than 30 desalination plants on the Kingdom’s western and eastern coasts, signed an agreement with Hitachi Zosen Corporation of Japan to conduct research on making use of solar power for desalination purpose. “This agreement reflects SWCC’s intent to execute the initiative of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on exploiting solar energy to operate desalination plants,” said Fehaid Al-Sharief, governor of SWCC, who signed the deal with Minoru Furukawa, chairman and president of Hitachi Zosen. Al-Sharief said the move supports SWCC’s strategy to cut down on production expenditures by conducting research on using renewable energy sources to operate its plants. “This three-year agreement aims at exchanging expertise and knowledge on exploiting renewable energy,” the governor said, adding that it includes setting up of a solar energy complex by the Japanese company. Meanwhile, Minister Al-Hussayen, accompanied by Al-Sharief, inspected the progress of work at the desalination-cum-power generation plant in Ras Al-Khair in the Eastern Province on Wednesday. “The project will meet full requirements of Maaden company,” the minister said, adding that the plant would supply water to Riyadh during the first quarter of 2013. The Ras Al-Khair desalination plant is considered the largest in the world with a daily capacity of more than a million cubic meters of water and 2400MW electricity. The project is being implemented at a total cost of SR25 billion ($6.66 billion) and the contract was awarded in November 2010.