The Middle East Solar Industry Association’s (MESIA) newest Solar Outlook Report states that regardless of speedy progress in photo voltaic deployment throughout the Middle East and North Africa, the realm’s energy combine is nonetheless dominated by fossil fuels. It says progress will likely be led by utility-scale photo voltaic, however it requires a balanced method involving distributed vitality tasks.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) area is more likely to attain 40 GW of photo voltaic this 12 months and 180 GW by 2030, in accordance with a brand new report from MESIA.
The affiliation’s 2024 Solar Outlook Report, which highlights the alternatives and challenges related to scaling photo voltaic vitality within the space, covers 14 international locations throughout MENA, The area collectively recorded 23% progress in photo voltaic capability in final 12 months to 32 GW.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Morocco led the expansion. These international locations are poised to account for greater than two-thirds of the area’s put in photo voltaic capability by the tip of the last decade, in accordance with the report.
Despite speedy progress, largely pushed by aggressive photo voltaic auctions and gigawatt-scale photo voltaic tasks, the report mentioned progress “lacks the mandatory ranges wanted to carry nearer to interchange fossil fuels within the energy combine.” Solar energy at present accounts for under 2% of the area’s complete vitality combine, whereas fossil fuels signify 87%.
But the report says there may be nice potential for photo voltaic progress within the area to speed up, as the realm has a few of the highest ranges of photo voltaic irradiance on the planet, exceeding 2,000 kWh per sq. meter per hour on common. .
It is estimated that the area may provide as much as 40% of the world’s vitality by the 12 months 2050 by way of “aggressive pursuit of renewable applied sciences.” The report states that MENA’s strategic location provides the potential of exporting photo voltaic vitality to neighboring markets by way of inexperienced hydrogen or electrical energy by way of interconnectors.
“The problem lies in reaching these targets, particularly within the distributed vitality sector throughout the Gulf area,” mentioned MESIA General Secretary Denisa Fainis. “While utility-scale tasks are essential, there’s a want to make sure a balanced method to vitality deployment to help inclusive and sustainable improvement.”
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