Saudi Arabia can transition to a 100% renewable energy system by 2040 including the integration of the power, desalination and non-energetic industrial gas sectors. Single-axis tracking PV and battery storage contribute the highest to the final LCOE of the system. By 2050, single-axis tracking PV accounts for 79% of the total electricity generation. Energy storage is seen as a cornerstone of the green energy revolution [, ]. The intermittent nature of solar and wind resources can be overcome with different types of flexibility (supply side management, demand side management, grids, sector coupling, storage), thereof energy storage is regarded as one of the most important, enabling a faster transition towards a 100% renewable energy system [,, ]. With the increase in global installed capacities of renewable energy power plants, there is a surge in demand for energy storage capacities. The Bloomberg New Energy Finances (BNEF) New Energy Outlook 2016 report forecasts the storage capacity to increase to 25 GW by 2028 from the 1 GW installed today.Luo et al. provides an overview of the current storage technologies and explains that pumped hydro storage (PHS) accounts for 99% of the global storage capacities. However, with improved power to energy ratios, Lithium-ion batteries are currently experiencing by far the fastest growth of all storage options and being used in small and utility-scale applications. Consequently, there has been a sharp decline in the capex of batteries as presented by Liebreich from BNEF. The price of the electric vehicle (EV) lithium ion battery price is estimated to have fallen from 770 €/kWh in 2010 to 243 €/kWh in 2015. The report forecasts the cost to plunge even more sharply to 162 €/kWh b. The three scenarios modelled are described below. The objective of each simulation scenario is to determine the energy system with the least total annualised cost, based on section 2.2 and the technical and financial assumptions of all components presented in Fig. 1. Conducted as a sensitivity analysis, the difference between the simulation scenari. The reduction in the capex of the SWRO plants enables the desalination plants, together with water storage, to run on lower full load hours without increasing the water production costs. This adds another dimension of flexibility to an energy system where the desalination sector is integrated with the power sector.At times when there is excess energy, it may be more economical to store the excess as water and utilize the water when there is not enough renewable energy in the system. This inIn this work we presented a study on the impacts of battery and water storage on the energy transition pathway for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.The least cost pathway to achieve a 100% renewable energy system through the integration of the power, desalination and non-energetic industrial gas sectors is presented. A sensitivity analysis is carried out on the SWRO plant and battery capex values to understand the impacts on the energy transition costs.
