Prospects for the 2023 Photovoltaic Market in the Middle East and North Africa Region

The Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia) reviewed the development of major photovoltaic markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in its latest "2023 Photovoltaic Market Outlook Report". This report provides an overview of the development of the photovoltaic industry in the Middle East and North Africa region, including green hydrogen, floating photovoltaic systems, and robot cleaning technology.

The Middle East and North Africa region is one of the regions with the highest solar irradiance in the world. In its research report, the Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia) emphasized the most important development achievements of the photovoltaic market in major countries and regions in the Middle East and North Africa over the past year, and looked forward to the photovoltaic deployment goals of each country by 2030. The following is an overview of the photovoltaic market in the Middle East by the Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia).

Iran installed 8.29MW of rooftop photovoltaic systems in 2022, with a cumulative installed capacity of 519MW. Due to the revocation of the power procurement agreement with private developers by the Iranian government, future large-scale photovoltaic projects will only be installed through government bidding.

Jordan is expected to introduce legislation related to the deployment of energy storage systems in 2023. The country purchases 1498MW of electricity from commercial photovoltaic projects by signing an electricity procurement agreement, and installs 1027MW of small-scale photovoltaic systems under a net metering plan. Jordan will connect to Iraq's power grid in 2023.

The Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia) claims that Lebanon experienced exponential growth in the field of photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage in 2022. However, the country does not have any official records regarding the installed capacity of its photovoltaic systems. The Lebanese government approved a distributed renewable energy production law in March 2023, allowing renewable energy producers to directly sell electricity to end-users, distributors, or other power suppliers through online or offline electricity procurement agreements.

Oman put into operation its largest photovoltaic park, the Ibri photovoltaic power plant with an installed capacity of 500MW, in 2022. The other two photovoltaic power plants with a cumulative installed capacity of 500MW are planned to be put into operation by the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024.

Qatar plans to introduce net metering regulation rules in 2023 and open the Al Kharsaah photovoltaic power plant with an installed capacity of 800MW in October 2022.

It is expected that the photovoltaic market size in Saudi Arabia will reach 40GW by 2030, and its market growth will be driven by auctions, utility contracts, corporate power procurement agreements, and state-owned projects. The country plans to open and operate a 2GW photovoltaic park by the end of 2025.

The Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia) said that Türkiye began to update its energy storage legislation in 2022 and is expected to pass it soon. Last year, the government of Türkiye began to require that more than 5% of the power of buildings with a building area of more than 5000 square meters in the country come from photovoltaic systems or wind power generation facilities.

The United Arab Emirates introduced a regulation in 2022 to increase the share of renewable energy generation in the country's electricity structure to 60% by 2035. The Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia) concluded that "these regulations are the first legally binding regulatory framework for clean and renewable energy in the Middle East power industry”.