The Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA) hails the progress made by the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and high oil & gas prices in the last 3 years but it believes it is time to accelerate the pace of deployment to achieve ambitious targets set, while also supporting distributed solar.
In its Solar Outlook Report 2023, MESIA argues that the solar industry continues to be financially viable, but it also needs to be directed to distributed solar in the form of subsidies, grants and private financing since current financing for this segment is 'insufficient'.
"The countries most affected by currency instability and energy inflation are the countries in most need of financing for distributed solar projects," state the report writers.
MESIA also points at the need to build technical capabilities of the labor force to engineer, install and maintain solar energy projects.
Seeing green hydrogen as an opportunity for MENA to become an important supply chain hub for both Europe and Asia, MESIA Secretary General Denisa Fainis said, "Green hydrogen, sustainably sourced through solar energy, is set to turn the MENA region into the 2nd biggest electrolyzer installer by 2040, with green hydrogen producing plants set for Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE accounting for close to 20% of the world's production."
Countries with abundant oil and gas resources also now view solar as an important technology to diversify their energy generation mix, reduce their carbon emissions and achieve net zero goals, according to this 10th edition of the report.
It also takes a look at leading markets in the region to see the latest progress made. Algeria, for instance, aims to generate about 1 GW solar annually as part of its renewable energy target of close to 15 GW by 2035. However, its annual additions are currently slow with about 12 GW installed in 2021, and 59 MW in 2022.
Iraq's renewables target is to achieve 33% share by 2030 with 12 GW to come from utility scale solar projects. While the market is promising with its rich solar resources, it faces bankability challenge. There is huge scope for distributed solar generation as currently this segment runs almost entirely on diesel generators.
With a target of 50% renewables by 2030 accounting for 58.7 GW including 40 GW solar PV, Saudi Arabia is expected to add 10 GW new capacity between 2022 and 2027, led by solar PV thanks to competitive auctions, unsolicited bilateral utility contracts, corporate power purchase agreements (PPA) and state-owned projects.
Details about other markets can be found in the complete report, which can be downloaded for free from the association's website.