Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has inked five solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) with a developer consortia led by ACWA Power covering 12 GW of new capacity. Alongside two wind PPAs totaling 3 GW, the seven projects have been billed as the largest renewable energy capacity signed for in a single phase globally.

Scientists in Malaysia have developed a novel deep-learning method for PV suitability mapping. Applying the new approach to the Middle East, they found that approximately 5.8% of the region has very high suitability and 11.5% is highly suitable for PV energy development.

New research from Saudi Arabia shows that PV, concentrated solar power (CSP), or hybrid PV-CSP systems could significantly reduce the levelized cost of hydrogen. CSP offers higher capacity factors, but PV-driven electrolysis provides the lowest projected cost for hydrogen production.

Fabricated via thermal evaporation, the champion perovskite-perovskite-silicon triple-junction solar cell reached an efficiency of around 22% after 110 hours of fixed-voltage operation under ambient conditions without encapsulation.

Academics have developed a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm for PV systems that combines incremental conductance with fuzzy logic control. The inputs used are the sum of conductance and incremental conductance and its rate of change. It had an average efficiency of 97.7%.

Researchers in Saudi Arabia have developed a hydrogel composite that absorbs moisture in solar modules overnight and facilitates evaporative cooling throughout daylight hours. The system has undergone lab tests and outdoor experiments on two continents.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems report producing perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with open-circuit voltages exceeding 1.9 V as the result of a two-step hybrid evaporated/blade-coated process for perovskite films.

Researchers from the Middle East have simulated a novel PV thermal module which includes a thermoelectric generator above the absorber layer, conical helical tape in the cooling tube and a ferrofluid. These technologies reportedly contributed to increased PV efficiency and thermal efficiency by 2.12% and 23.34%, respectively.

Scientists have developed a system that harvests rainwater running off PV panels for household use or hydrogen production. Their analysis showed that, in the southern Sahel, the system can meet both the energy and water requirements for electrolysis, with surplus rainwater covering up to 50% of a household’s daily water demand.

Researchers in Saudi Arabia have compared the performance of ground-mounted PV plants with that of off-shore solar facilities and have found that floating installations benefit from the cooling effect of the seawater.