MARKET I OPINION
Middle East update
Last year Michelle T. Davies, Partner and head of Clean Energy & Sustainability at Eversheds provided Solar with an excellent overview of the growing PV opportunities in the Middle East. Michelle is joined by Matthew Gibbs, Associate at Eversheds to provide an update on what has changed for solar in the region.
SINCE WE LAST WROTE FOR SOLAR at the end of 2013 much has changed in the development of the Middle East solar and PV markets. Saudi Arabia did not take its renewables White Paper forward, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority released its 100MW solar RFP to pre-qualified bidders and Jordan’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources launched a 3 round direct proposals process, closing on round 1, extending round 2 and cancelling round 3.
There has also been substantial growth in the development of distributed energy and wheeling projects in countries such as Jordan, where the end consumers are procuring their own clean energy supply at a set price. Whilst the incentive for the push towards renewable energy varies throughout the MENA region, the chief driver for all nations is to meet their future energy needs. For the oil and gas rich countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE,
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the spur behind renewable energy policies has been the desire to utilise oil and gas reserves for export rather than domestic consumption. So long as there is arbitrage between export prices and the cost of renewable energy, it is a logical step.
For those countries reliant on imports to satisfy their energy requirements (Jordan and Morocco for instance), the motivation behind renewables is energy security. Regional political instability has meant this is a particular concern for these nations at the moment, due to the potential disruption to oil and gas supplies.
Something which is frequently forgotten is that MENA nations also have targets to hit under the Kyoto Protocol (which they have all signed up to) and for that reason they must start seriously thinking about their carbon footprints. The MENA region still has the ability to develop into a significant renewable
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