Middle East

The Middle East, and the Gulf in particular, has been home to record low solar tariffs in recent years. Major projects are being awarded via tenders, with prices gradually closing in on a remarkable 1 USDct/kWh. Of course, this is no coincidence due to the region’s favorable solar conditions: availability of cheap and sunny desert land, low labor costs, cheap project financing, supportive tax regimes, large projects benefitting from economies of scale, well designed tender structures, and decreasing PV component prices.

If the three record-busting low solar price tariffs recorded in the Middle East in the past 18 months are to be believed, renewables-powered hydrogen in prime sites in the region could already compete with gas-plus-CCS production, according to IRENA. Has the Gulf discovered the new petrol?

The desalination unit consists of a multistage membrane distillation (MSMD) component that is placed on the backside of a large-area solar cell measuring 16 x 16 cm and utilizes the waste heat of the cell to drive water evaporation. It is able to produce 8.09 kg m2 of freshwater per day and reduce the temperature of the solar cell by up to 14.4 degrees Celsius.

Saudi scientists built the cell’s electrode with a hole-transporting molecule called Br-2PACz and not with the commonly used PEDOT:PSS. It helped improve the photovoltaic cell efficiency by around 0.9%.

Utility DEWA has announced the first 300 MW of the fifth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park will be commissioned next month, with the first stage of the fourth phase due to arrive two months later.

The new facility is expected to be connected to the emirate’s water network this month.

Energy efficiency, electrification of heating and transport, and the provision of clean cooking facilities are all going in the wrong direction as the Covid crisis deprived millions in sub-Saharan Africa of electricity use, according to a report by the IEA, IRENA, WHO, World Bank and UN Statistics Division.

Academics have utilized three PCMs, known as RT26, RT35, and RT42, and decided to pack them ascendingly depending on their melting points and heat-flow direction. The system is claimed to allow lower melting rates and longer thermal management of the modules.

The trade show will be held from October 5-7 under the auspices of the Covid-delayed global trade fair.

Private sector fossil fuel spending on exploration is drying up just as modest rises in clean energy investments are being observed. With stock market investors increasingly embracing renewables, the IEA has observed positive signals in its latest energy investment report, but warned we are still doing far too little to keep global heating at bay.