Saudi Arabia plans to develop about 60GW of renewables over the next 10 years, including 40GW of PV and 16GW of wind, the kingdom’s energy minister confirmed – while also warning of “chaos” if the world abandons oil and gas too quickly.

The plan is designed to spur renewables deployment at a “pace rarely seen in the region” in the oil-rich state, Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih said during the opening of the Future Sustainability Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia will tender for “no less than 12 projects” in 2019, he added, without giving further details.

The head of Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy programme Turki Al Shehri later said that its five-year target was now set at 27GW, including 7GW of wind.

Responsibility for delivery of the renewables programme will be split between Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – one of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth funds – and its Ministry of Energy, which will competitively tender about 30% of the total.

Al-Falih's remarks suggests that the 60GW goal represents Saudi Arabia’s domestic ambition. The minister added: “The 60GW could go a lot bigger, especially as we find solutions to intermittency and introduce storage into the kingdom.”

Saudi Arabia’s precise renewables plans had become shrouded in uncertainty over the last year, after its government signed a co-operation agreement with Japan’s Softbank over development of 200GW of capacity by 2030.

Al-Falih did not specifically mention that agreement, but said: “Over the next decade we will create in the kingdom a global hub of renewable energy capability in the size of upwards of 200GW, spanning the entire value chain from local manufacturing [to] project development, domestically and abroad”. Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power is reportedly set to move into PV manufacturing as part of the country’s link with Softbank.

Al-Falih’s comments came during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, and days after a consortium of Abu Dhabi’s own Masdar and EDF was confirmed as winner of Saudi Arabia’s first wind farm, with an ultra-low bid equivalent to $21/MWh.

The energy minister claimed the kingdom would continue to “set benchmarks” as its renewables programme is rolled out – as part of an energy diversification strategy that also includes nuclear power, with up to 3.2GW of reactor capacity envisaged.

However, Al-Falih accompanied his outline of Saudi Arabia’s renewables ambitions with a stark warning of what the oil-rich nation claims would be the global consequences of too-rapid shift to renewables. “We urgently need a consensus around an energy transition that is pragmatic,” he said.

Against a background of rising global demand, he said: “There are some who seriously propose we can meet the increased energy demand while rapidly abandoning oil and gas, despite their convenience, competitive cost, and infrastructure that has been invested in over decades.”

The energy minister said depriving emerging economies of the chance to meet demand via oil and gas sources would mean “we face chaos”.

His comments came days after a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) published a landmark report on the geopolitical implications of the energy transition, which flagged a loss of wealth and influence among oil and gas-dependent states.

The Irena report pegged Saudi Arabia as a "highly exposed but highly resilient" nation, heavily exposed to oil revenues but with the resources to reinvent itself.