What are they going to do with all that electricity, especially given it is intermittent?
To me, the project sounds like a PR BS because it is too expensive and i can't see a use for it.
Saudi Arabia and all nations that rely on oil exports certainly have to be seeing the future a bit differently than the rest of the world, and so you have to take this into account when considering their plans. It's probably not particularly controversial to say that oil won't be nearly as valuable in 50 years. But when your GDP is being sustained by oil, that means you're living on borrowed time - and when it comes to completely reshaping your national economy and international role, 50 years suddenly is not such a long time.
I would imagine that they will build _some_ storage as well in the coming 12 years, or I will be very disappoint.
From what I understand the most energy-intensive part of desalination is pumping it to where people can actually use it.