More than 12 Gigawatts in Middle East, Africa Solar PV Project Pipeline

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Strong growth is expected in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions for the solar photovoltaic (PV) power market, with a significant number of utility-scale projects in the planning or pre-planning phases.

PV projects in Africa have a total potential capacity of more than 11 gigawatts (GW), and Middle East projects total at least 1.3 GW.

"Until now, PV market growth in the MEA region has been mainly driven by a small number of economically prosperous countries, in particular South Africa and Israel," said Susanne von Aichberger, an analyst at Solarbuzz (Santa Clara, California), an industry research publication. "These two countries, and Saudi Arabia, are expected to offer stable demand levels within the MEA region over the next few years. The capacity share of the remaining MEA region is projected to increase; however, the increase depends on relatively few but very large projects."

Ground-mounted projects represent more than 99% of potential PV capacity listed in the Middle East and Africa, and average sizes of these projects in Africa tend to be larger than in most established PV markets.

"Economy of scale tends to raise the attractiveness of large projects, but the large size of ground-mounted solar parks also increases risk, particularly in countries with previously little or no existing markets," von Aichberger said.

Most of Africa's existing PV capacity is located in South Africa, with completed projects totaling about 700 megawatts (MW). Identified installations in the rest of Africa amount to 10% of this capacity. Only 7% of the African project capacity has been completed.

Projects of 50 MW or more recently have been announced throughout Africa, with the largest pipelines in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Apart from South Africa, multi-megawatt projects have been completed in Benin, Cap Verde, Mauritania, Senegal and Uganda.

In the Middle East, more than 95% of PV capacity is ground-mounted, with the strongest roof-mounted demand coming from Israel. Israel has 260 MW of completed projects and more than 300 MW in the pipeline. Large projects are expected to come from Saudi Arabia, after the country's renewable energy tender program begins.

For related information, see July 11, 2014, article - U.S. No.1 for Utility-Scale Solar Power, South Africa Joins Global Top 10, and June 4, 2014, article - South Africa's Renewable Independent Power Producer Pipeline Reaches Strong Operational Phase.

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