The Saudi pavilion at the UN Climate Conference COP26 shed light on renewable energy and hydrogen production projects in the city of NEOM, during a conference entitled “Designing a 100% Renewable Energy System from Zero – Marhaba NEOM”, to which a crowd of interested parties and visitors to the pavilion participated.

The conference was about environmentally friendly and pioneering technologies that they are It will be used in the NEOM project, which aims to be the city The first destination in the world to rely entirely on renewable energy and one of the world’s leading sources of clean energy.

Modular construction continues to gain more traction in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Construction Week’s Leaders in Construction KSA Summit 2021 discussed how this particular method is shaping the future of the sector in the nation. 

As discussed throughout the summit, the residential construction industry in Saudi Arabia is facing a shortage of affordable housing as a result of a growing population.  This has encouraged the demand for pre-fabricated homes, as they are cost-effective and time-efficient, reflecting the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

NEOM Tech and Digital Holding Company - the first holding company to be established as a subsidiary of NEOM - and OneWeb, the global communications network powered from space, have signed a $200 million (SAR 750m) joint venture agreement to bring high-speed satellite connectivity to NEOM, Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East and neighboring East African countries.

The partnership will see the deployment of OneWeb's Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, which will not only provide the rapid and reliable connectivity to enable NEOM's ecosystem of cognitive technologies, but also transform businesses and rural communities in the region where access to fibre-like internet was previously unimaginable. The agreement also includes a long-term strategic partnership regarding research and development of future connectivity systems.

The world’s first integrated creative media industries hub, which is being established at NEOM, can contribute significantly to NEOM’s GDP with generating exciting career prospects for young Saudis, according to Wayne Borg, managing director of Media, Entertainment and Culture at NEOM.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to create the world’s first physically and technologically integrated creative media industries hub at NEOM and by doing so contribute significantly to NEOM’s GDP while generating exciting career prospects for young Saudis,” he said while referring to the added value that he brought into NEOM in his capacity as a towering international media figure with experience spanning over two decades.

OceanX and Saudi Arabia’s NEOM project recently completed an expedition to the Red Sea.  The six-week trip involved 30 scientists carrying out research on the northern Red Sea’s shallow reefs and deep portions as well, with focus areas on mapping, genetics and oceanography.  Their groundbreaking discoveries will lay the foundations for NEOM’s ambitious conservation program. This will protect the incredible biodiversity for generations to come.

The scientists conducted 1,100 hours’ worth of diving surveys, found eight new species and identified 341 fish species. They mapped over 1,500 square kilometers/579 square miles of the region.

 NEOM began as an idea conceived by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the first Future Investment Initiative Forum in 2017. The ambitious project is now a reality that serves as a vision for the future of a world that harnesses the power of smart technology, harmoniously linked with nature, to perfectly cater to the needs of humanity.   

The ambitious project is now a reality that serves as a vision for the future of a world that harnesses the power of smart technology, harmoniously linked with nature, to perfectly cater to the needs of humanity. There are three projects which show the technological momentum of NEOM presently with more planned.

Cloud Park

"100 percent renewable energy, innovation, a friendly regulatory ecosystem," Joseph Bradley, the CEO of NEOM Tech and Digital Holding Company, told Arab News as he described the project.

"NEOM is an accelerated human progress. It’s not just some humans but all humans, so we want to make sure that the connectivity creates an environment we like to call ‘digital air,’ meaning wherever you are you don’t have to worry about Wi-Fi or being connected to something."

Infrastructure work has begun on the Kingdom’s revolutionary zero carbon city “THE LINE” and it is expected to be ready for inhabitants and tourists as early as the first quarter of 2024, said Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO of NEOM in an interview with Bloomberg.  

THE LINE, a 170-km-long strip,  will form the backbone of the NEOM development, driving a pathway of modern development from the Red Sea to the desert valleys at the eastern end of the NEOM development zone.  NEOM also “faced some challenges in the beginning” as employees worked to design a city around technologies that don’t exist yet, Al-Nasr said. 

Last week, officials announced that they were spinning off the first of several subsidiaries of NEOM: a company dedicated to its tech sector, to be headed by American chief executive Joseph Bradley, who previously held leadership roles at Cisco Corp. and Uptake.

If all goes according to plan, within a few years, one million people will live in Saudi Arabia’s ‘city of the future’ – and every one of them will depend on a fleet of self-driving cars. 

Saudi Arabia has set aside $500bn to invest in the economic zone of NEOM, a smart city that will be built from scratch and where inhabitants will get around by using fully autonomous vehicles (AVs). While it is certainly a significant project, the systems being developed for the NEOM megacity are still in the design phase, with many details either not yet decided or not communicated to the public.