Solar and wind energy potential in GCC countries and some related projects

Abstract

The paper highlights the solar and wind energy potentials in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The potential projects in each GCC country are also highlighted herein. We are expecting that the amount of new solar and wind electricity by 2015 in these countries may reach 5000MW distributed as follows: 1000MW in Bahrain, Qatar, 3500MW solar electricity, UAE: 400MW, and Kuwait and Oman: few MW. The paper also proposes a mechanism to accelerate the renewable energy utility in these countries.

Recommendations on renewable energy policies for the GCC countries

“…Some previously published studies have investigated the potential of RE in the GCC countries [1,[3][4][5][6]. In this part, only three main sources of RE will be described which are: solar energy, wind energy and biofuels because they constitute the largest potential in the region.…”

“…The region's average Global Solar Radiation (GSR), available to photovoltaic (PV) cells, is estimated at about 6 kWh/m 2 /day. Estimates of the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI), available to solar concentrating technologies, are around 4.5 kWh/m 2 /day [6].…”

“…The coastal and gulf areas of the GCC countries present an important potential for wind energy, with an estimate of more than 1,400 h/year of wind [6]. Saudi Arabia has the most recorded hours of full wind load per year among all GCC countries, at 1789 h [6].…”

Industrial and Agricultural Applications of Solar Heat

“…The mirror strips can be located close to each other without mutual shading, so less roof or ground space is wasted when compared with parabolic troughs that require a large spacing between each row of troughs to avoid mutual overshading. Linear concentrating Fresnel mirror collectors have been used for absorption chillers in Italy and Spain [17] and have been placed on a floating rotating base, which gives a two-axis tracking like in a system in Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates [18].…”

Power management strategies and energy storage needs to increase the operability of photovoltaic plants

“…3,4 However, this promising evolution of the PV power capacity faces a challenge in achieving large penetration into the electrical power system (EPS) due to the stochastic nature of the solar resource. In fact, this is an issue for most of the renewable energy sources (RESs), which usually present intermittent production.…”