Solar power is expected to generate $182 billion investment in Middle East renewables by 2025, despite the disruption caused this year by the global coronavirus pandemic.

While experts claim the sector has been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 crisis through supply chain disruptions, delays in tendering processes, crashing oil prices and government restrictions, the evidence on the ground appears to suggest business is booming.

Antonio Jimenez, managing director and vice president, Trina Solar Middle East & Africa region, told Arabian Business that sales globally for the company in the first half of 2020 were up 50 percent and were standing at “above 50 percent” for the region here.

He said: “What we’ve seen is more a delay of projects in the market, more than cancellations. One of the good things about solar power is that they are, in a way, neutral from the economic cycle. When the cycle is good, people want to invest; when the cycle is bad, people want to invest because it’s one of the quickest ways to have savings in a business.

“Nowadays solar power is the cheapest source of energy and, if you want to cut your costs, this is one of the quickest and easiest ways to realise savings.”

According to research from Frost & Sullivan, the pressure to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is compelling in the Middle East.

The report revealed that the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon are all embracing renewable energy. With a 57GW capacity addition - solar photovoltaic (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), and wind - by 2025, the region is estimated to witness an 18-fold growth of the current capacity.

Dubai-based SirajPower, the UAE’s leading provider of solar rooftops, earlier in the summer announced the signing of a $50 million long-term non-recourse credit facility for solar distributed generation from The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp).

CEO Laurent Longuet told Arabian Business that while the lockdowns and movement restrictions have impacted business, the forecasts for the future remain positive.

He said: “According to IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency), the world could unlock a hundred-trillion dollar boost to global GDP and millions of new jobs by 2050 if it makes renewables the centrepiece of the Covid-19 recovery. Out of all renewables, solar growth would be the most central to delivering IRENA’s 2050 vision.”

Utility authorities in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have invested heavily in developing solar energy resources, which in turn has led to a continued reduction in tariffs for solar photovoltaic energy, which dropped to AED4.97 fils/kWh ($1.35/kWh) in a recent announcement in the UAE capital.

Solar energy equally contributes to the country’s medium to long-term decarbonisation and sustainable development objectives aligned with the UAE’s National Energy Plan 2050.

The plan aims to increase the contribution of clean energy in the total energy mix from 25 percent to 50 percent by 2050 and reduce carbon footprint of power generation by 70 percent, with savings estimated at around $190 billion (AED700bn) by 2050.

Shams 1, which occupies 2.5 sq km and has a capacity of 100 megawatts, displaces about 175,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which is the equivalent of planting 1.5 million trees or removing 15,000 cars from Abu Dhabi’s roads.

While the AED3.2bn ($871m) Noor Abu Dhabi, at Sweihan – the world’s largest single-site solar project – boasts a capacity of 1,177MW. Providing enough capacity to cover the demand of 90,000 people, the plant features more than 3.2 million solar panels, installed across an 8 sq km site.

However, private businesses are also continuing the embrace the solar revolution.

Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Outsource City, part of Tecom Group, recently completed work on two solar PV carports that will generate 4.25 GWh of clean electricity annually - enough to power 350 homes.

While Landmark Group, a leading retail and hospitality conglomerate in the Middle East and India, signed a 2.6 megawatt-peak solar agreement with Yellow Door Energy, a UAE-based sustainable energy provider, and AMANA Investments, a renowned design-build construction company.

The deal will bring clean energy to Landmark Group’s state-of-the-art, fully automated AED1bn Omega DC Warehouse in Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA).

Saraswathi Venkatesan, energy and environment research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said: “Going forward, with wind making less than 20 percent of the total renewable energy installed capacity by 2025, solar energy investments are relatively more attractive.”