Middle East

The energy companies have signed a partnership agreement to expand their portfolios on the Iberian peninsula. Spain and Portugal have ambitious decarbonization plans requiring large capacities of renewable energy resources in the years to come. Spain’s PV market could reach 6 GW this year.

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.

A Californian company which provides PV power to maternity clinics in the developing world was an award winner alongside British pay-as-you-go electricity provider BBOXX. And a school in Tajikistan which aims to go fully solar powered secured a cool $100,000 towards that ambition.

Togo, Mauritius and Guyana will all receive backing for solar projects in the latest round of funding from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development-IRENA Project Facility.

The large-scale IPP project will be developed at a landfill site. The plant is part of the kingdom’s plan to deploy 255 MW of solar by 2025.

The procurement exercise, intended for the deployment of large-scale projects across three locations, was to have been held on January 29. The tender will be re-issued this year – and it may include storage.

Many large-scale solar projects are underway, with more on the horizon throughout the Middle East, but it’s the oil-rich Gulf states that have some lofty goals. However, countries may be overlooking a key necessity for long-term, sustainable growth.

The Renewable Energy Project Development Office of Saudi Arabia is planning to tender 11 PV power projects with a combined capacity of 2,225 MW this year. The country’s solar target for 2023 has been revised up from 5.9 GW to 20 GW, and that for 2030 set at 40 GW.

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.

The United Nations Development Program wants consultants for Iraq’s PV policy, aimed at helping the Ministry of Electricity in the construction of utility-scale solar plants, as well as in the deployment of 5 MW of residential PV. Frost and Sullivan forecasts around 5 GW of solar capacity may be installed by 2028.