Saudi Arabia

Following a petition by domestic PV panel manufacturers, India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies has recommended the imposition of duties ranging from $537-1,559/metric ton on solar ethylene vinyl acetate sheets imported from China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

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.

The thin-film manufacturer this week signed an agreement with a clothing brand to develop a $1 billion solar thin film industrial park. No details have emerged yet as to how it will be funded or where exactly it will be based.

Two Emirati developers are celebrating landmark deals with a commercial and industrial focus as Yellow Door Energy secures $65 million to expand operations into new markets and Adenium – one of Yellow Door’s backers – prepares to operate the region’s first industrial self-consumption and net metering project.

The Renewable Energy Project Development Office is tendering seven large-scale IPP solar projects. The exercise is part of Round 2 of the Saudi National Renewable program, which is expected to allocate almost 2.2 GW of PV capacity this year.

Wood Mackenzie’s number-crunchers are the latest analysts queueing up to predict a bumper year ahead for PV, with falling prices, rising efficiency rates and booming markets outside China all on the cards. And it could be a make-or-break year for mega-projects, says Wood Mac.

DEWA projects featured strongly in this year’s accolades but there was also recognition for projects beyond the region and some eye-catching innovations.

In the face of increasingly strident global calls to turbocharge the switch from fossil fuels to clean energy, remarks from the Saudi and Emirati energy ministers in Abu Dhabi this week will do little to encourage hopes the world can contain global temperature rises below 1.5C.

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.

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.