Middle East

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. (Masdar) and Emirates Water and Electricity Co. (EWEC) have started building a solar-plus-storage project in Abu Dhabi that will deliver 1 GW of continuous baseload energy from a 5.2 GW solar plant paired with a 19 GWh battery system.

Algerian researchers have built a single-stage solar and battery desalination system for brackish water that uses a hybrid spotted hyena optimizer and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm to improve efficiency. Simulations and real-time tests showed high performance, steady water output, and low salinity under changing solar conditions.

A UAE research team developed a hybrid 1D-CNN and random forest model to detect multiple faults in bifacial PV systems, including dust, shading, aging, and cracks. Using simulated I-V curves and a 180-day synthetic dataset, the model achieved up to 100% accuracy in general state detection and 97.6% in specific fault classification.

Energy China has signed three EPC contracts worth $2.7 billion for 5 GW of wind and solar projects in Saudi Arabia with partners including PIF and Aramco Power.

The BAJ Solar IPP projects is planned to have a capacity of 100 MW and to be located near Bilaj Al Jazayer, on the Southwest coast of Bahrain.

Cyprus will replace its current net metering and billing schemes with a new, market-based self-consumption model from January 2026, as the island’s electricity sector opens to competition.

A consortium of France’s Engie and the UAE’s Masdar has been selected to develop the 1.5 GW Khazna solar PV project located near Abu Dhabi. The project is expected to reach financial close before the end of the year.

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have published a review that looks at polycarbonate sheets as an alternative to solar cover glass. Their findings indicate that this new materials have a combination of low weight, mechanical strength, optical transparency, and thermal resistance that is worthy of further investigation.

The solar facility is planned for construction in the Jahra Governorate, with the selected developer to be awarded a 30-year power purchase agreement.

An Indian-British research team has developed a building-integrated linear concentrating PV facade by sandwiching an asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator, PERC cells, and encapsulation layers between two sheets of glass. The system was tested under both indoor and outdoor conditions and its payback period was found to be of up to 11 years.