The Solar Market in the United Arab Emirates

The UAE is expected to generate 25% of its electricity from solar energy, with a total installed solar capacity of 44 GW by 2050. The Middle East Solar Energy Industries Association (MESIA) describes the challenges the country will have to tackle to achieve this goal.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made significant progress in increasing its reliance on renewable energy in recent years, with a goal of increasing the share of clean energy in its total electricity mix to 50% by 2050. Currently, the UAE is one of the fastest growing utility-scale markets in the MENA region, with around 2,000 MW of renewable energy installed annually. However, the country still faces some challenges in achieving its goals.

Romain Riche, Director of International Development at the Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA), commented: “Over the past two years, major solar developers have experienced delays in the delivery of modules from China due to soaring PV module prices, with slight delays in flagship projects in the region. As a result of these challenges, the country's cumulative installed capacity remains at around 3.5 GW by the end of 2022, but with the completion of large projects currently in Abu Dhabi (Al Dhafrah 1,500 MW) and Dubai (MBR Solar), installed Capacity will soon reach 6 GW (Park Phases 4 and 5, 950 and 900 MW respectively).

With initiatives such as the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and Abu Dhabi Vision 2030, which aims to provide 75 percent of Dubai's total electricity capacity, the country has set ambitious targets for the development of solar photovoltaic technology. “New developments are likely to be announced at the dawn of the upcoming COP28 in the country. This year, EWEC will close Al Aljban’s tender for an additional 1,500 MW of solar projects in Abu Dhabi. Dubai, meanwhile, already has 14% Electricity comes from clean sources and DEWA has now launched a tender for Phase 6 of its mega-solar cluster to add an additional 1,800 MW," Rich added.

In the field of distributed solar, although it has been welcomed in Dubai with its net metering policy, its development in general has remained limited. To achieve the ambitious goal of the UAE's Energy Strategy 2050 to achieve a 44% share of clean energy by 2050, accelerated development and policy renewal will be required.

The development of solar in the UAE has also been hampered by a number of factors, including legal and legislative issues, funding constraints and grid integration constraints. One of the challenges is the lack of regulation of the distributed generation (DG) market in the UAE outside of the Emirate of Durbar. However, in November 2021, the UAE announced its intention to pass a federal law regulating the connection of distributed renewable energy production installations to the grid across all seven emirates. This is expected to significantly boost the distributed generation market over the next few years, with an expected increase of 400 to 500 MW per year once regulations are introduced, up from the current growth rate of around 60 to 100 MW per year. This will represent a major leap forward for the UAE DG market.