Here comes the sun: solar-led green growth in MENA

摘要

When large-scale oil reserves were first discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938, who would have believed that growth in MENA would ever have been oil led? Saudi Arabia had been declared a nation state only six years before, had few people with formal education, little infrastructure, no modern legal system, and was largely isolated from the rest of the world. A long and difficult journey to transport oil to market. Not an attractive investment location, not obvious there would be a large market. And the rest is history as they say. A history which few would pay attention to now. Fast forward to solar energy today in MENA. A MENA with lots of educated people, sophisticated economies and legal systems, deep states in many countries, a well-developed infrastructure - including the means to transport energy to markets. An increasingly integrated part of the global economy. And a solar resource that is the best in the world. And all of this sitting inside a market with very fast-growing electricity demand, and next to a rich market in Europe which pays a premium for solar energy. Why is this solar resource only in the early stages of exploitation compared to its enormous potential, and what would help realize that potential? Well, here are a few possible explanations and responses.