Saudi Arabia is planning to build two parallel, mirrored buildings that are nearly 500 metres tall and 120km long as part of its NEOM desert megacity, according to a report published on Saturday. 

NEOM, the sustainable regional development in northwest Saudi Arabia, has launched its very own regreening initiative in collaboration with the National Center for Vegetation Cover and Combating Desertification. As part of its program to rehabilitate at least 1.5 million hectares of land, NEOM’s initiative will see the return of 100 million native trees, shrubs and grasses by 2030 to aid the restoration of degraded land and repair of wildlife habitats.

The solar and wind power projects aimed at supplying electricity to the $6.5 billion planned green hydrogen-based ammonia plant in Saudi Arabia’s NEOM, are expected to be situated in northwest Saudi Arabia close to the border with Jordan, reported Meed, citing an industry source. 

International off-road racing initiative Extreme E announced a multi-year relationship with ENOWA, the energy, water and hydrogen subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s NEOM to implement innovative green hydrogen-based technologies for Extreme E’s global sustainable racing series, while also showcasing the possibilities of green hydrogen.

ENOWA will play an active part on the scientific advisory board of Extreme E, while the partners will develop educational programmes intended to excite young people about climate positive solutions.

The city of NEOM will be ready by 2024 to receive tourists and investors, the CEO of the project has announced.

What has been discovered less than 500km from NEOM is spread over a vast, remote landscape are millennia-old archaeological remains that could change our understanding of prehistory. Work by Jane McMahon and her colleagues from the University of Western Australia is shedding light on some of the earliest stone monuments in world history – predating Stonehenge and the earliest pyramid in Giza. That place is known as AlUla.

Oracle has announced that NEOM Tech & Digital Company, the world-leading technology company powering the first cognitive digital ecosystem at NEOM, has selected Oracle Dedicated Region Cloud Customer to create a scalable, agile and modern platform for all mission-critical IT workloads. NEOM will be able to access Oracle’s portfolio of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) public cloud services and Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications to address local data residency and latency requirements and reduce operating costs for its 36MW ZeroPoint DC data centre.

A new university at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s planned megacity on the banks of the Red Sea could soon emerge as the country’s premier scientific institution with the backing of its powerful crown prince, experts have said.