Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Jordan most attractive Cleantech markets in MENA

A recent 2012 report by Ernst & Young concluded that Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Jordan as the most attractive Cleantech markets in the MENA region due to their government plans, budgets and long-term strategies. These countries have demonstrated investments in large initiatives such as KACARE for Saudi Arabia, Masdar for UAE and the ‘Green’ FIFA World Cup 2022 for Qatar. Although Jordan has limited financial resources, a new law was issued on renewable energy, which may help create new jobs by increasing local content requirements for investments in renewable energy.

The report also identifies the main drivers of Cleantech growth across the MENA region as: government policy, cost of the renewable energy, desire to reduce the use of fossil fuels, increased business efficiency and Job creation as a result of population growth and elevated rates of unemployment.

The report also sights broad opinion that Solar energy would be the leading Cleantech in the MENA region with Photovoltaic (PV) as the main solar technology for the MENA region followed by Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) by a lesser extent. The report sights in its survey that the lead of PV over CSP was justified mainly by the price per watt compared with the other technologies.

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.