Mideast Petro-States Look Past Oil’s Crash to Chase Solar Power - Bloomberg:
Some of the Middle East’s biggest oil producers are pushing into solar energy even amid the rout in crude prices.
Cheap crude used to deter investment in renewable energy in countries that depend on oil sales for revenue. Today, solar projects cost only about a 10th of what they did a decade ago, thanks to more affordable equipment and better technology, according to research by BloombergNEF.
The Middle East’s first forays into renewables faltered when oil prices dropped or official priorities shifted. Solar programs that Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi embarked on a decade or so ago would have required tens of billions of dollars and never got far off the ground. Since then, governments have found partners to help shoulder costs, and in spite of potential delays from the coronavirus, their solar ambitions are gaining traction.
“Solar power is the cheapest kilowatt-hour in the Middle East,” Benjamin Attia, an analyst for power and renewables at consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd., said in a telephone interview from Boston. New projects in the region rely on private funding, rather than government spending, and are therefore “insulated from headwinds” of lower oil prices, he said.
Some of the Middle East’s biggest oil producers are pushing into solar energy even amid the rout in crude prices.
Cheap crude used to deter investment in renewable energy in countries that depend on oil sales for revenue. Today, solar projects cost only about a 10th of what they did a decade ago, thanks to more affordable equipment and better technology, according to research by BloombergNEF.
The Middle East’s first forays into renewables faltered when oil prices dropped or official priorities shifted. Solar programs that Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi embarked on a decade or so ago would have required tens of billions of dollars and never got far off the ground. Since then, governments have found partners to help shoulder costs, and in spite of potential delays from the coronavirus, their solar ambitions are gaining traction.
“Solar power is the cheapest kilowatt-hour in the Middle East,” Benjamin Attia, an analyst for power and renewables at consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd., said in a telephone interview from Boston. New projects in the region rely on private funding, rather than government spending, and are therefore “insulated from headwinds” of lower oil prices, he said.
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