Peter Terium, CEO of ENOWA, told Arab News last week, that NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s smart and sustainable city, will construct a water desalination plant by 2024 to tackle water scarcity.

ENOWA is currently leading the development of NEOM’s avant-garde, sustainable energy and water systems. During the Future Desalination International Conference, which took place in Riyadh, Terium told journalists that the project would also include the creation of an artificial freshwater lake in Trojena.

Terium said: “If you want to build a future land like NEOM, and you want to have livability, green parks and food production, then you need water, and of all the beautiful things it has, water is not one of them.”

He added that the desalination facility will be a benchmark in sustainability because it will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy.

The use of renewable energy in water desalination will increase NEOM’s green hydrogen production, which could eventually be supplied to other countries.

“We have an ambitious road ahead of us. The first thing would be bringing a large wind and solar field into NEOM, and then we need to add to that,” Terium said.

NEOM’s renewable energy goal is achievable and will have a competitive cost advantage because the wind speeds go up to 11 meters a second and the place is solar-intensive.

The first large-scale green hydrogen plant in the world is being constructed in NEOM, he added.

The production capacity of the green hydrogen plant in NEOM would be 2,000 megawatts, which is ten times the largest planned production facility in Europe.

Terium stated: “The world needs tens, if not hundreds, of gigawatts of hydrogen production. We are not big enough to host all of that, but we can lead by example as we are the first ones to do it.”