Saudi investing abroad in Solar Energy

Although, this blog is meant to focus on the Middle East Renewable Energy developments, there is a recent Solar project from Morocco that has some relevance.

It was recently announced that Morocco’s solar energy agency has selected a consortium led by Saudi International Company for Water and Power (ACWA) to build a 160-megawatt concentrated solar power plant in the south of the country.

The Morocco state Solar Energy Agency (Masen), made the announcement at a press conference. ACWA has teamed up with Spanish engineering firm Aries IS and TSK EE for the design, finance, construction, operation and maintenance of the plant near the southern city of Ouarzazate.

In 2009, Morocco announced a $9 billion project to build five solar plants to harness the sun’s rays and produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020.

It is very interesting to see a Saudi developer investing in Solar projects outside of Saudi Arabia and the GCC. This signals the higher focus and attention Solar energy is getting in the GCC countries and we can see the local developers gearing up to capitalize on the rise of Solar energy.

Clean Energy Growing in the Middle East

I found an interesting article online at (Link). The article confirms as I mentioned in a previous blog that Saudi Arabia is planning to secure 41 GW of Solar Energy by 2032. Highlighting that otherwise continued reliance on Oil for Power generation will limit the Kingdom’s Oil export capacity.

Also, noteworthy in the article was Iran’s plans to develop a 5MW pilot plant for geothermal energy and its intention to add 12,000 MW of renewable energy to its power capacity.

The article also mentions that Qatar Solar Technologies plans to build a $1 billion silicon plant in Qatar to supply the material to manufactures of solar panels. In addition, Qatar Electricity and Water Co. wants to get 10 percent of its electricity from solar by 2018.

The article also mentions Petra Solar and First Solar as companies targeting the Middle Eastern Renewable market. It will be interesting to see who the foreign solar companies will choose to strike their strategic partnerships in the region.

Solar Energy in Bahrain

Bahrain's National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) is implementing a 5 MW solar capacity into a wireless smart grid network at Awali area. This project is being implemented in co-operation with Petra Solar, Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) and Caspian Energy Holdings.

The system to be developed by Petra Solar will tie directly into the grid without requiring an upgrade to current transmission or distribution infrastructure, eliminating many of the grid interconnection issues and additional costs faced by traditional solar systems.

It is encouraging to see Bahrain venture into Solar power and it will be very interesting to see how Petra Solar will integrate renewable energy into the existing power grid.