In a recent collaborative research project, we try to answer the question whether a viable long-term market exists for solar PV without subsidy reform in the Middle East. Ambitious targets for utility-scale solar in the Middle East have been set like Saudi Arabia’s world record 200GW solar park plan, but without proper reforms they may miss-out on easier to achieve economic and job benefits from developing a downstream distributed industry. Growth in the distributed generation sector has had limited success in the Middle East largely due to energy subsidies that have kept retail prices artificially low. In this white paper we take an in-depth look at five countries in the Middle East (Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) to examine why some have been more successful at others at growing a local solar market and identify what can be done to meet government goals.
The white paper was co-authored by Benjamin Attia, Browning Rockwell, Chris Ahlfeldt, and Aaron Morrow. For the original GTM press release and white paper please refer to sources below:
GTM Press Release (April 23rd, 2018)