Category: Mega Trends & Analysis Middle East and Africa

Wind Energy Market Outlook for Middle East & Africa

Wind Energy Market Outlook for Middle East & Africa

April 27, 2026 | ,

By the end of 2025, South Africa remained the largest wind energy market in Africa. Recent developments indicate renewed momentum in Egypt’s wind market. Wind power driving the clean energy transition Kenya continued to strengthen its position as one of Africa’s most renewables-heavy power systems in 2025, with renewables comprising more than 80% of the power mix. Saudi Arabia’s wind energy journey is marked by flagship installations and growing project pipelines under its renewable energy agenda. Türkiye is positioning offshore wind as a long-term pillar of its energy transition under the National Energy Plan for 2035 and its 2053 net-zero target.

Read More
Coal versus Renewables in Southeast Asia’s energy crisis

Coal versus Renewables in Southeast Asia’s energy crisis

April 13, 2026 | , ,

For energy-importing countries in Southeast Asia, the current oil and gas crisis has led to consumer curtailment and a scramble for affordable resources. Countries that have suspended operations or underutilised coal generation capacity now see it as a way to replace the LNG used for electricity generation. This demonstrates that coal is not insulated from geopolitical shocks: short-term switching pushes up demand, which in turn pushes up prices. Only renewables are immune to such immediate crises, as once installed, they do not require a constant supply of fuel to generate electricity.

Read More
Türkiye’s hybrid solar potential is more than 8 GW: EMBER

Türkiye’s hybrid solar potential is more than 8 GW: EMBER

June 23, 2025 | , ,

The limited capacity of Türkiye’s electricity grid is negatively affecting the growth of renewable energy capacity. Across both transmission and distribution levels, the available capacity for unlicensed plants in Türkiye is only 0.52 GW. This slows down the realisation of new solar investments in Türkiye, a country with high solar potential. The investment costs required for new grid infrastructure are among the main barriers to increasing capacity allocations. According to TEİAŞ’s 2024–2028 Strategic Plan, 74% of the total 362 billion TL budget planned for the five-year period will be allocated to the renewal and development of the electricity grid. According to the analysis conducted by TEİAŞ and published in its Strategic Plan to assess external factors that may affect its operations and strategic decisions, economic factors have been identified as the second most important element likely to impact the organisation in the future, after technological factors.

Read More
Transition Time: Morocco’s efforts to develop a modern and sustainable grid

Transition Time: Morocco’s efforts to develop a modern and sustainable grid

March 17, 2025 | , ,

Morocco’s transformative approach towards its energy sector, through strategic investments and policy reforms, exemplifies its commitment to sustainable development, energy security and economic growth. With ambitious plans to expand its renewable energy capacity, modernise its electricity infrastructure and develop its green hydrogen economy, Morocco is not only addressing its domestic energy needs but also emerging as a key player in regional and international energy markets. These efforts, underpinned by a defined strategy, highlight Morocco’s role as a model for energy transition in Africa and beyond.

Read More
Solar Power Outlook for EU and Türkiye

Solar Power Outlook for EU and Türkiye

July 1, 2024 | , , ,

The year 2023 showed the best annual growth rate since 2018, and was the year with the highest absolute market growth ever, with over 20 GW more than the market size in 2022. Germany led this surge, installing 15 GW or a quarter of the total EU installations, while Spain and Italy completed the podium, with over 14 GW combined. By the end of 2023, total installed power capacity in Türkiye had increased by 2,859 MW. Out of it, 1,867 MW of new solar power plants were commissioned, bringing the total solar PV installed capacity to over 11 GW. Türkiye’s National Energy Plan aims to increase solar energy capacity to 52.9 GW by 2035 and, according to its 12th Development Plan, it will reach 30 GW by the end of 2028.

Read More
Renewables Remain Critically Underfunded in Africa: Zero Carbon Analytics

Renewables Remain Critically Underfunded in Africa: Zero Carbon Analytics

December 11, 2023 | , , ,

Though Africa only accounts a tiny percentage of global CO2 emissions, renewables deployment has grown substantially over the last decade, doubling between 2012 and 2022, from 28.45 GW to 58.78 GW, with an average year-on-year growth rate of 7.6%. South Africa has seen the highest growth in generation capacity, followed by Egypt. As of 2021, around 25% of installed capacity on the continent was renewables-based. Despite this growth, Africa still only accounts for less than 3% of total global renewables capacity.

Read More
Transmission Ties: Saudi Arabia’s regional connections

Transmission Ties: Saudi Arabia’s regional connections

August 13, 2023 | ,

Saudi Arabia plans to transform its generation mix. It proposes to revamp its existing installed generation capacity of 83.4 GW as of December 2022, which is predominantly based on thermal sources such as natural gas, crude oil, diesel and heavy fuel oil, accounting for nearly 99.5 per cent of the total.  According to the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), the RES target for 2030 is 58.7 GW, of which 40 GW will be based on solar PV, 16 GW on wind and 2.7 GW on concentrated solar power.

Read More
Renewables rescue Turkey’s electricity sector

Renewables rescue Turkey’s electricity sector

June 22, 2022 | , ,

Wind and solar power generation lowered Turkey’s import bills by preventing seven billion USD fossil fuel imports in the last 12 months. In the following months, approximately 700 million USD in savings is expected each month if the gas price remains the same. While the Transmission System Operator reserves limited capacities for wind and solar, auctions attract 10-15 times more applications than the auctioned capacities.

Read More
Africa: The Power of Renewal – Current Status of the Energy Transition

Africa: The Power of Renewal – Current Status of the Energy Transition

June 1, 2022 | , ,

In Africa, the most noticeable trend has been the transition towards decentralized power solutions. Solar home systems have also moved from being a niche sector dominated by non-governmental organizations to being considered a mainstream investment led by the big players. Energy investors who have traditionally focused on grid-scale generation are now investing in, buying or developing businesses in this area in Africa.

Read More
Assessing EU plans to import hydrogen from North Africa

Assessing EU plans to import hydrogen from North Africa

May 18, 2022 | , ,

Hydrogen is expensive to distribute via shipping and pipeline, which is why today the large majority of it is manufactured at the point of consumption. Realistically, is Europe going to be willing to pay that very significant price difference? North African governments and firms should therefore be wary of promises of large export markets for expensive to manufacture and ship green hydrogen, and the synthetic fuels made from it.

Read More
Egypt’s Power Sector: Transition Towards Renewable Energy 

Egypt’s Power Sector: Transition Towards Renewable Energy 

April 26, 2022 | , ,

Egypt has achieved an electrification rate of more than 95 per cent. However, due to rapid population growth and an expanding economy, the country continues to witnesses an increase in energy demand. Given Egypt’s limited and depleting fossil fuel endowments, the country is now turning to renewable energy to meet the rising power demand.

Read More