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Iran steps into solar power spotlight, UAE and KSA heat up

Rostam

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Iran steps into solar power spotlight, UAE and KSA heat up

August 12 - 2013

Iranian engineers have now designed and manufactured solar power plants in five countries, while investments add up in the Gulf.

The UAE has received a five-megawatt (MW) power station with a smaller 1.2 MW station having been completed in Iraq by Iran, according to the Mehr News Agency. Other plants have been built in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and India.

The government of Iran is to step up its use of solar systems to supply power to homes, it was previously announced. The Director of Iranian Fuel Conservation Company, Abbas Kazemi, announced in February that up to $650 million could be saved with the use of PVT (photovoltaic thermal hybrid systems) in buildings.

Iran is currently trading power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan (including the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic), Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. The Islamic Republic intends to boost electricity imports across the region and has ‎attracted ‎more than $1.1 billion in investments for ‎three new power‎ plants.


UAE and Saudi Arabia see the light

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are braced for a real foray into the renewable energy market with solar power projects that require more than $1.5 billion in financing by the end of 2014, Bloomberg has reported.

Dubai's first large solar power plant, now 70 per cent complete, is on schedule to be operational in October 2013. Completion of the 13 MW plant is the first phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park, which aims to generate electricity (1,000 MW) to power 200,000 homes by 2030.

Renewables investment in MENA rose by 40 per cent last year, to $2.9bn, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). With more than 100 projects under way, including solar, wind and geothermal sites, spending could reach $13 billion across the whole region within just a few years, the agency says. IRENA issued the statement last week in a joint report with the UAE government and the Renewable Energy Policy Network.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, plans to invest more than $100bn to generate approximately 41,000 MW from solar energy, or a third of its total power output, by 2032. That compares with approximately 16 MW of solar capacity today, a level that places the kingdom behind Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and the UAE, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Iran steps into solar power spotlight, UAE and KSA heat up | Middle East News | AMEinfo.com
 
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Only for Developed Countries, Solar Energy is expensive and doesn't offers a stop-gap solution in short terms.

I would go with nuclear.
If I'm not wrong though, solar energy costs are dropping by 1/2 every year. Soon it'll become very cost effective, especially in the land of the never ending sun (most of the ME).

But for now, you're def'n right.
 
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