Solar power projects heats up across GCC

Gulf countries are increasingly turning their focus towards clean renewable sources of energy for their power generation, with solar energy set to emerge as one of the region’s main sources of energy by 2017. Solar power installation projects worth about US$155 billion are in the pipeline with capabilities to generate more than 84 GW of power.

The Saudi government hopes to double its installed electricity capacity by building 54 GW of renewable energy, as well as 17.6 GW of nuclear power by 2032, of which 41 GW will obtained from the sun. Qatar is also turning to renewables, with a plan on the table to get 10% of the electricity and energy used in water desalination from solar energy by 2018. Kuwait too has ambitions to derive 10% of its power requirements from renewable energy sources by 2020.