Solar Panel Market Grows Fast In UAE
According to Emirate Business 24-7, many manufacturers of solar panels see in the Middle East and the UAE a potential huge market for projects for alternative energy.
Qatar, Jordan and plenty of other countries want to follow on the footsteps of the Saudi Arabia city of Masdar, which will be entirely zero emissions. This project had a total price tag of $22 billion, according to a Sharp Solar official.
These projects include the Energy Park from Qatar, the Enpark in Dubai (which will have over 8 million sq. feet), a Saudi city with zero emissions and the Jordanian Shams Maan project.
According to Mohannad Al Shami, the Sharp Middle East development manager, the Masdar project is just the first step, with many other sites being considered in the future, in countries like Jordan and Qatar. This statement was given at the Big 5 exhibition, to the Emirates Business publication.
As for Enpark, which is the first environment and energy free zone from Dubai, it will be a project with a long term commitment, and the purpose of addressing the power needs of the industrial areas and those of the city. While the announcement was made a while back, it was delayed so far because the debut of the financial crisis.
Besides the power infrastructure, these alternative energy projects will also need large quantities of solar panels. Projects such as these prove very popular in the region because these countries enjoy over 300 days of sun each year.
These solar panels can be used to power factories that have problems with outages during the day. Given these facts, it’s only normal that the Middle East countries are pursuing solar energy on a large scale. Right now, there are plenty of factories in the region that depend on the use of diesel generators to function during the day. In some cases, factories get less than 6 hours of electricity per day right now.
In order for the demand to be met, Sharp has decided to increase its production of solar products in all its six factories.
The demand for electricity in UAE grows each year by up to 10%, which is twice the global rate.
