Arabic Archives - Global Energy Monitor https://globalenergymonitor.org/language/arabic/ Building an open guide to the world’s energy system. Mon, 11 Sep 2023 00:13:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://globalenergymonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cropped-site-icon-32x32.png Arabic Archives - Global Energy Monitor https://globalenergymonitor.org/language/arabic/ 32 32 MENA grows renewables by half but clings to risky hydrogen and gas https://globalenergymonitor.org/report/mena-grows-renewables-by-half-but-clings-to-risky-hydrogen-and-gas/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mena-grows-renewables-by-half-but-clings-to-risky-hydrogen-and-gas Mon, 11 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://globalenergymonitor.org/?post_type=reports&p=11986 Arabic-speaking nations of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) increased renewable capacity by 57% to 19 GW and are expected to increase by half again by 2024, but the region still needs twenty times that amount of renewables to replace existing gas-fired generation, finds a new report from Global Energy Monitor. While a step … Continued

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]]> Arabic-speaking nations of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) increased renewable capacity by 57% to 19 GW and are expected to increase by half again by 2024, but the region still needs twenty times that amount of renewables to replace existing gas-fired generation, finds a new report from Global Energy Monitor.

While a step forward for the heartland of fossil fuels, the renewables capacity added in the last year is relatively unambitious compared to MENA’s peers and dwarfed by the outsized role of oil and gas in the region.

A dumbbell chart showing the incremental solar and wind additions in MENA countries from 2022 to 2023, with the United Arab Emirates adding the most in the past twelve months with 3 gigawatts, Oman second with 1.2 and Qatar next with 0.8 - but no country in the region currently has more than 6 gigawatts total operational capacity.

Four times more renewables (32 GW) were brought online during that same period in South America, a region with a similar population size and gross domestic product, with Brazil alone adding over 14 GW of large utility-scale solar and wind.

The incremental progress on renewables is all the more concerning given that MENA needs roughly 500 GW of solar and wind capacity to replace the electricity generation from the 343 GW of gas and oil power plants in the region.

The report does show that all but two of the 23 nation-states in the MENA region have increased their plans for wind and solar power in the past year, with eight countries having at least three times more prospective capacity – projects that are either announced, in pre-construction, or under construction – than 12 months ago.

A dumbbell chart showing the change in prospective capacity for utility scale solar and wind power in MENA countries from 2022 to 2023, where Oman added the most at 68 gigawatts, Egypt second at 66 and Mauritania with 50GW additions, as Jordan, Lebanon and Yemen have almost no planned prospective capacity across both years.

The region’s prospective capacity increased to 361 GW, a rise of 292 GW in the last year -more than the total prospective capacity in the U.S. and Canada combined.

Among all the prospective utility-scale solar and wind projects, just 6% (23 GW) are under construction.

Forty-seven percent (171 GW) are in pre-construction, meaning these projects have demonstrated either financing, government permitting, land rights, or formal power purchase or offtake agreements. The remaining 46% of prospective projects have just been announced.

More than half (60%) of this prospective capacity is earmarked for green hydrogen production or direct export. These hydrogen projects are massive — averaging 2.6 GW per phase (14 times the global average) — and have distant estimated start years.

Green hydrogen may offer a means for economic diversification for these oil and gas-dependent nations, but carries higher risk and will not contribute to decarbonizing local electricity usage.

A bar chart showing what it would take for MENA countries to transition from gas power to renewables with and without green hydrogen and exports - with Saudi Arabia needing the most solar and wind capacity to match existing oil and gas capacity
Portrait photograph of Kasandra O'Malia, Project Manager, Global Solar Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor

Last year’s wind and solar additions are a step in the right direction for the region but still light years from dethroning oil and gas. The trouble is that the region’s path to a green economy relies overwhelmingly on hydrogen exports, which is an unproven technology that is not being designed to address energy access nor decarbonization at home.

Kasandra O’Malia, Project Manager for the Global Solar Power Tracker at Global Energy Monitor

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]]> A Race to the Top ’22 Middle East & North Africa: Arabic-speaking Countries on Pace to Grow Their Utility-scale Wind and Solar Capacity More than 500% by 2030 https://globalenergymonitor.org/report/a-race-to-the-top-arabic-speaking-countries-on-pace-to-grow-their-utility-scale-wind-and-solar-capacity-more-than-500-by-2030/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-race-to-the-top-arabic-speaking-countries-on-pace-to-grow-their-utility-scale-wind-and-solar-capacity-more-than-500-by-2030 Tue, 28 Jun 2022 08:00:00 +0000 https://globalenergymonitor.org/?post_type=reports&p=8593 Countries in Arabic-speaking Middle East and North Africa plan over 73 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale solar and wind power projects, a more than five-fold increase in current capacity that together with operating projects will account for 91% of the Arab’s League 2030 renewable energy targets, finds a new briefing from Global Energy Monitor.  This … Continued

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]]> Countries in Arabic-speaking Middle East and North Africa plan over 73 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale solar and wind power projects, a more than five-fold increase in current capacity that together with operating projects will account for 91% of the Arab’s League 2030 renewable energy targets, finds a new briefing from Global Energy Monitor. 

This race to the top of renewables capacity is demonstrating a marked shift away from fossil fuel power in some countries. The 39.7 GW of prospective solar and wind energy projects pursued by the top three countries in the region – Oman, Morocco, and Algeria – is nearly four times their prospective new gas-fired capacity.

Oman has 15.3 GW of prospective utility-scale solar projects announced, in development, or in construction, compared to only 0.3 GW of prospective gas-powered and 0.04 GW of prospective oil-powered electricity. Morocco plans to roll out 14.4 GW of utility-scale solar and wind projects in the next five years, six times the capacity of its prospective gas projects. 

The region’s top five countries in terms of prospective utility-scale solar and wind capacity additions are:

  1. Oman (15.3 GW)
  2. Morocco (14.4 GW)
  3. Algeria (10.0 GW)
  4. Kuwait (9.6 GW)
  5. Iraq (5.8 GW)

The top five countries in terms of current operating utility-scale solar and wind are:

  1. Egypt (3.5 GW)
  2. United Arab Emirates (2.6 GW)
  3. Morocco (1.9 GW)
  4. Jordan (1.7 GW)
  5. Saudi Arabia (0.78 GW)

The 114 prospective solar projects and the 45 prospective wind projects are also markedly large: the average size of prospective solar farm phases in the region is nearly four times that of the rest of the world, and the average wind phase farm size is more than one and a half times that of the rest of the world. 

Ingrid Behrsin

At the epicenter of the oil economy, a renewables boom is taking shape. This transformation should send a strong signal to the rest of the world that even oil and gas-producing countries are embracing renewables.

Ingrid Behrsin, Project Manager, Global Wind Power Tracker

The Middle East and North Africa have always had tremendous potential for wind and solar development, but to see these countries shunning fossil gas in favor of renewables and at this scale is stunning.

Kasandra O’Malia, Project Manager for the Global Solar Power Tracker
Kasandra O'Malia

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