My latest article published by Jordan Property magazine in August 2009

The high increase of oil prices in 2007-2008 and the resulting turmoil in energy markets has acted like a wake-up call for many Arab countries, especially the non-oil producers to the absolute need for diversification of energy sources, and placed more emphasis on the renewable energies for both economic and environmental reasons.

The majority of Arab countries are blessed with a huge availability of both conventional and renewable resources of energy. However the conventional sources will not last forever and have proven to be one of the causes of our environmental problems. It is clear therefore that in due time Renewable Energy will play a substantial role in the world energy system, due to its inherent advantages such as mitigation of climate change, generation of employment and reduction of poverty, as well as increased energy security and supply.

A global exponential growth:

The Renewables 2007 Global Status Report paints an encouraging picture of rapidly expanding renewable energy markets, policies, industries, and rural applications around the world. In 2007, global wind generating capacity was estimated to have increased 28 percent, while grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity rose 52 percent. The renewable energy sector now accounts for 2.4 million jobs globally, and has doubled electric generating capacity since 2004, to 240 gigawatts. More than 65 countries now have national goals for accelerating the use of renewable energy and are enacting far-reaching policies to meet those goals. Multilateral agencies and private investors alike are integrating renewable energy into their mainstream portfolios, capturing the interest of the largest global companies.

Renewable electricity generation capacity reached an estimated 240 gigawatts (GW) worldwide in 2007, an increase of 50 percent over 2004. Renewable energy represents 5 percent of global power capacity and 3.4 percent of global power generation. New renewable energy (not counting large hydropower) generated as much electric power worldwide in 2006 as one-quarter of the world’s nuclear power plants. Large hydropower itself accounted for 15 percent of global power generation.

The largest component of the renewable power capacity increase was wind power, which grew again by over 25 percent worldwide in 2007, to reach an estimated 95 GW.

The fastest growing energy technology in the world is grid-connected solar photovoltaics (PV), with 50 percent annual increases in cumulative installed capacity in both 2006 and 2007, to an estimated 7.7 GW. This translates into 1.5 million homes with rooftop solar PV feeding into the grid worldwide. Another estimated 2.7 GW of stand-alone systems brings global PV capacity to over 10 GW.  Rooftop solar heat collectors provide hot water to nearly 50 million households worldwide, and space heating to a growing number of homes. Existing solar hot water/heating capacity increased by 19 percent in 2006 to reach 105 gigawatts-thermal globally.

Several renewable energy technologies and applications are of relevance to countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). However, local and country-specific conditions including the availability of renewable energy resources, cost of conventional energy, capital cost of equipment, institutional availability and capability as well as other factors, influence the commercial viability of renewable energy technologies.

Bright future in the Middle East

The potential of solar energy resources is excellent in all MENA countries with an annual global solar radiation varying between 4 to 8 kWh/m. The region also enjoys high direct normal radiation and low average cloud cover. Producing electricity from both concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) has a good potential due to the fact that the incident solar radiation throughout the MENA region is higher than the required value. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) in particular is developing an ambitious programme for technology transfer and localization in relation to renewable energy.

The economics of wind energy has improved dramatically in the past few years, such that in many developed countries today, wind energy is now the least expensive option among all energy technologies. Several MENA countries such as Oman, Egypt, and Morocco have good wind energy resources (wind velocity range between 8-11 m/sec.).

Biomass energy is used widely in direct cooking in rural areas of MENA countries. Due to the semi-arid nature of MENA countries and the small amount of forest and agriculture residues, the biomass potential for MENA countries is available only from municipal waste but is expected to increase in efficiency. Several countries in MENA region particularly, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria have hydro resources. The potential of some of these countries are much higher than the power generated by this source.

In the United Arab Emirates the main story in the news currently is the beginning of construction of the first carbon-neutral, waste-free city in Abu Dhabi built by the ‘Masdar’ Initiative. The city will showcase the best available technologies for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. By blending waste management with renewable technologies such as solar and wind power, ‘Masdar’ says the city will use 75 percent less electricity and less than half the amount of water of conventional cities, saving the equivalent of $2bn in oil costs over 25 years. To maximize energy efficiency, the city’s narrow thoroughfares will draw on the traditional architecture of the old walled towns of the Middle East. Carbon emissions saved by these techniques will then be monetized through carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism.

In Egypt, renewable energy resources represent 11% of total energy supply in 2003. This may seem high, but if we exclude hydro and biomass wood, other renewable energies represent 0.1% of total energy supply. Solar water heating is currently used in residential, commercial and tourist hotels buildings with varying degrees of success. More than 500,000m of solar collectors have been installed so far. The total renewable energy generated power reached 2,929 MW , 94% of which being large hydro. The rest is composed of 145 MW from wind, 36 MW from biomass, and 3 MW from PV. The renewable energy generated power represents 17.5% of the total electricity installed capacity and the renewable energy power generation was 13.2 TWh, representing about 15% of the total electricity generation..

In Jordan, more than 200,000 solar water heaters, 7 MW of hydro power (represent 0.68% of total electricity capacity), 3.0 MW of pilot plant biomass (from municipal waste disposal) electricity generation are currently in operation. In addition to that 100 kWp of PV systems, twelve wind turbines projects with a total capacity of 1620 kW were demonstrated in many remote applications. The National Energy Strategy 2007-2020 aims at an increase of the share of renewable energy from 1% to 10% of total energy supply by 2020 which corresponds to an investment for generating 300 MW from wind and 300 MW from solar systems.

In Tunisia, the renewable energy resources represent 12% of the total energy supply which seems relatively high, however excluding biomass and large hydro, renewable energies represent only 1% of total the energy supply. Renewable energy utilization includes 110,000 m of solar water heaters installed with the help of GEF, 2 MW of PV systems, 20 MW of wind and 0.1 MW of biomass. In 2003, the total renewable energy based capacity was 85 MW, almost 74% of which being hydro (39% large hydro, and 35% small hydro). This represent around 3% of the total electricity installed capacity.

In Saudi Arabia, numerous R&D demonstration projects were conducted by the American-Saudi cooperation program (SOLERAS) during the last two decades of the previous century in the areas of solar cooling, solar desalination, solar thermal electricity and photovoltaic. Among these projects are 50 kW of solar thermal electricity & 400 kWp total of PV systems. Saudi is currently concentrating on energy efficiency and energy management.

In Morocco, renewable energy sources represent 25% of the total energy supply. This seems very high in comparison with other countries in the region. However excluding non-commercial biomass and large hydro, renewable energies represent only 0.1% of the total energy supply. A national solar water heater program called PROMASOL was launched in November 2000 to improve quality and encourage use of solar water heaters. The objective of this program is to increase the actual installed capacity (60,000 m) to about 400,000 m, and it is also planning to build 50 MW solar thermal plant. The total renewable energy electricity generation installed capacity reached 1324 MW, more than 93% of which being large hydro. The rest is composed of 30 MW small hydro (2.5%), 53 MW wind (4%), and 3 MW PV (0.5%).

The previous examples demonstrate both political will, economic feasibility and technological capacity for spreading renewable energy in the Middle East and having a more green and secure energy future that can tolerate the expected shocks of the carbon-based economy.