Middle East Bets Big On Solar Resources

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--Endowed with a huge solar energy generation potential, the Middle East is set to become the next big market for solar power. The governments of the major Middle Eastern economies are heading for a long-term energy diversification.

With its vast deserts, the Middle East is an ideal place to harness solar energy. Until now, the comparative cost differences between solar and fossil fuels have deterred the region from tapping the renewable resource, but it is now turning its focus to renewable energy and is gearing up to spend about $50 billion by 2020 on solar energy programs alone.

In recent years, the price of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has drastically fallen due to the entry of Chinese manufacturers, who have teamed up with the leading European companies. Despite being a green power source, solar PV is not a reliable mode of power generation as PV plants are dependent on uninterrupted solar radiation and can generate and supply electricity only during the day. On the flip side, concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, with the advantage of energy storage and uninterrupted supply, is becoming more popular in the Middle Eastern regions.

A host of companies from the Middle East are entering into joint ventures with foreign companies to capture the solar energy market. UAE, the current regional leader in solar programs, plans to install 15 Gigawatts (GW) of solar power by 2020. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, with an approximate 2,200 kilowatt-hours per square meter (kWh/m2) of solar irradiation, has an ambitious plan to build 41 GW of solar energy-based projects during the next two decades, out of which, about 25 GW is concentrated solar power. Egypt and Qatar propose to produce 20% of their energy from renewable resources by 2020 and 2024, respectively.

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