The mid-year report is a more concise version of the MESIA Annual Outlook Report to be published in January 2022 but also features an insert on Qatar, which was not present in the report’s full edition. For the first time as well, the report will be exclusive to MESIA members for 90 days (as well as press/media on-demand) before becoming public domain in September 2021.

A New World Record in H1 of 2021

The region never fails to break world records in the solar industry. After an unprecedented year, the pandemic did not impact the solar energy market as severely as anticipated. In April, the world witnessed one of the lowest bids for solar projects ever, recording $0.0104/kWh, at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s REPDO Round 2 tenders of Al Shuaiba PV IP project.

Major Updates

The decrease of carbon emissions during 2020 has served as a wakeup call for countries to better understand the steps and actions required to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. To be specific, the MENA region has ambitious targets to increase its investments in the energy sector over the next five years. KSA leads the way among other countries to improve their commitments to the green energy transition.

Solar projects are currently moving ahead in many MENA countries. The trend of MENA governments focusing on energy diversification through the implementation of large-scale projects is set to continue in the future.  In Qatar, a strategy to implement 4 GW of solar by 2030 is in place, along with, Al-Kharsaah PV project targeting the roll out of 800 MW of capacity by 2022. Algeria is also stepping up to implement a 1 GW solar scheme in 2021 and ultimately develop solar power plants in the country, having a total capacity of 4 GW between 2020 and 2024.

Kuwait just announced that an additional 3.5 GW of renewable energy from PPP projects shall be added by 2027. KSA on the other hand is moving ahead with its REPDO projects and other mega scale PV plants.

Similarly, hydrogen projects are already being implemented. The Mohammad Bin Rashid Solar Park have inaugurated the very first pilot green hydrogen project in the MENA region. Other projects such as NEOM Green Hydrogen in Saudi Arabia and the largest hydrogen project in the Middle East to be built in Oman are planned to be online in the next coming years. Other countries like Morocco and Egypt are also focusing on including hydrogen projects into their energy mix.