OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, Iraq, aims to accelerate solar power development with at least 1,000 small-sized projects over the next three years, a senior government official has said.
“Solar energy will be an essential part of the national energy mix by 2030,” Mazhar Mohammed Salih, advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister, was quoted as saying by IraqiNews.
Iraq, like the other countries in the sunny Middle East, has huge potential for solar power development. Iraq is heavily reliant on fossil fuels for its energy and electricity mix and has even had to seek U.S. waivers to continue importing electricity and natural gas from neighboring Iran, which is under sanctions.
Currently, solar power accounts for less than 1% of Iraq’s electricity.
In Iraq, the share of clean electricity was just 1.2% in 2023, according to energy think tank Ember. The largest source of clean electricity was hydropower, with 0.9% of total electricity, while the share of wind and solar, at 0.3%, was far below the global average of 13% in 2023.
Recently announced projects are set to boost solar energy in one of the world’s top oil producers and exporters.
Earlier this month, Iraq’s Electricity Minister, Ziyad Ali Fadel, held a meeting with UAE-based renewable energy giant Masdar to accelerate the installation of solar projects with a combined 1,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity.
UAE’s Masdar, for its part, wants to become one of the world’s biggest renewable companies, targeting 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind assets by 2030.
Masdar sees having up to a 35% market share of the renewables power capacity in the Middle East by the end of the decade, 20% of Europe’s clean energy capacity, and up to 25% of the U.S. capacity, CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi told the Financial Times at the end of last year.
The company’s shareholders are Abu Dhabi’s oil giant ADNOC, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investment company Mubadala, and state utility giant TAQA.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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