The weekend read: The untapped potential of the MENA region
The region’s climate, developing economies and demographic growth are driving increased electricity demand in the Middle East and North Africa. However, as a hub of conventional energy supply, the region has been slow to embrace PV. To capture more of the value chain and deliver the full potential of solar, there are increasing calls for distributed generation deployment to play a bigger role.
UAE minister and OPEC chief says IRENA’s solar forecasts for Gulf nations will prove conservative
With the International Renewable Energy Agency’s number-crunchers predicting almost 5.4 GW of new solar across the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations today, Suhail Mohammed Faraj Al Mazroui said his nation alone would install 6-7 GW of new renewables capacity by 2024, as pv magazine editor-in-chief Jonathan Gifford reports.
Solar the cheapest power source – so let’s use it to extract fossil fuels
In the wake of a COP24 climate change conference which emphasized the need to wind down fossil fuel exploitation rapidly, Kuwait is turning to PV as a sustainable solution – of ramping up its oil production.
Kuwait plans tender for 1 GW solar PV project
The tender for $1.2 billion Dibdibah solar power plant will be issued in the first quarter of 2018, Bloomberg reports.
