Arab region punching above its weight for solar and wind energy research

In the Arab world, it is hardly surprising that oil-producing countries dominate scientific publishing in the field of energy research, which spans renewables, nuclear power and fossil fuels.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt figure among the leading countries for the volume of output on energy research but, if you take population size into account, Saudi Arabia slips a few places and Egypt drops back considerably.

It is actually Qatar and the United Arab Emirates which are publishing the most intensively on energy-related issues.

The Arab States have increased their world share of research on cleaner fossil fuel technology to 3.3% but this is still relatively low for a region that is home to major oil- and gas-producing countries.

In the Arab world, it is Iraq which showed the fastest growth rate for countries publishing at least 1,000 publications on energy between 2012 and 2019. Iraqi scientific output as a whole surged by 530% between 2015 and 2019, one of the fastest growth rates in the world. The rise in Iraqi researcher density is not sufficient to explain this surge; as for Iraqi research expenditure, it has stagnated at just 0.04% of GDP over the past decade (2011–2021).

Throughout most of the Arab region, research expenditure remains well beneath 1% of GDP. The two notable exceptions are Egypt (0.96% of GDP in 2021, up from 0.53% in 2011) and the United Arab Emirates: 1.50% of GDP in 2021, up from 0.49% in 2011. The Arab States accounted for about 5.3% of the global population in 2018 but only 1.2% of global research spending.

If we narrow the focus from energy research as a whole to research on renewable sources of energy, we find that the Arab region doubled its scientific output in this field over the period from 2012 to 2019. These topics include photovoltaics, hydropower, biofuels and biomass, wind turbine technologies and smart-grid technologies.

Arab countries increased their global share of academic articles on solar photovoltaics to almost 8%. This means that they are now punching above their weight for this topic, as Arabs account for 5.3% of the global population. The Arab leaders for the volume of research on this topic are Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Iraq.

Saudi Arabia comes second to Qatar for the intensity of scientific output on solar photovoltaics. Saudi universities have a policy of recruiting highly cited foreign scientists.

The Arab region also boxes above its weight for wind turbine technologies, as it is contributing to more than 7% of global scientific output on this topic.

Between 2010 and 2017, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates all made considerable progress in installing facilities for wind and solar power generation. Under Algeria’s Tafouk 1 project, solar plants are being constructed in more than ten provinces (wilayas), covering a total area of around 6 400 ha. In 2020, Algeria had about 20 solar power plants.

Between 2017 and 2021, the United Arab Emirates installed about 70% of the Gulf’s renewable energy capacity. In April 2019, the 1.2-GW Noor Abu Dhabi Solar Power Project began operating commercially. Co-financed by eight commercial banks and built within 23 months, it claims to be the world’s largest single-site plant of its kind.

In Yemen, power shortages linked to the ongoing conflict have driven the spread of solar energy. By 2017, about 75% of households in urban areas and 50% of those in rural areas were equipped with solar panels, according to a study by the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency hosted by Egypt. Customers wishing to conform to the Islamic Sharia are able to avoid taking out interest-based loans, thanks to a scheme in which the local bank purchases the solar system then sells or rents it to the end-user in instalments at a modest profit. Scientific output on the topic of solar energy has tripled in Yemen from 7 (2012–2015) to 22 (2016–2019) publications.

Desalination is a vital source of freshwater for the Arab region but also a source of pollution, since the brine resulting from desalination may be discharged into the ocean and desalination is often powered by fossil fuels.

Research will, thus, be important to overcome these drawbacks. Output by Arab scientists on the topic of desalination grew by 50% between 2012 and 2019, according to the UNESCO Science Report (2021), raising the region’s global share of publications on this topic to 11%.

In Saudi Arabia, Advanced Water Technology, the commercial arm of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, partnered with the Spanish firm Abengoa in 2015 to build one of the world’s first large-scale solar-powered desalination plants near Al Khafji City. Inaugurated in November 2018, the plant can treat 60 000 m3 of seawater per day.

Several Arab States have fixed ambitious targets for developing their renewable energy capacity. In 2018, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) observed that ‘Egypt’s economic development hinges on the energy sector’.

Egypt has a mix of energy strategies. In November 2017, the government signed contracts with Rosatom for the construction of four reactors for Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, El-Dabaa, which will have a total capacity of 4.8 GW.

Egypt’s Integrated Energy Strategy to 2035 envisions the share of renewables in the country’s electricity mix augmenting from 2.3% in 2016 to 42% by 2035, with emphasis on solar and wind energy. Egypt completed the second phase of the Benban solar park megaproject in November 2019.

IRENA considers that Egypt could obtain 53% of its electricity mix from renewables by 2030 in a cost-effective manner. By 2017, most of its renewable energy was coming from hydropower (2.8 GW) and the remainder from wind, solar and bio-energy (2.0 GW).

Other Arab countries have fixed ambitious targets for renewable energy. Renewables accounted for just 3% of energy consumption in Morocco in 2019 but the country has fixed a target of 52% for total installed power capacity by 2030.

Tunisia’s Renewable Energy Action Plan 2030 plans to raise the share of renewables in electricity production from 2.7% in 2020 to 30% by 2030.

More modest are the strategies for Kuwait (15% by 2035) and Oman: 10% by 2025.

For its part, the United Arab Emirates’ Clean Energy Strategy 2050 envisions three-quarters of the total power supply coming from nuclear and renewables by 2050.

The priorities for scientific research designated by Jordan’s Higher Council for Science and Technology for the 2011–2020 period include 148 topics related to inclusive, sustainable development.

Since 2019, Jordan has been home to the world’s first large accelerator complex to be fully powered by solar energy (pictured above). This makes the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) not only the region’s first international research centre but also the world’s first carbon-neutral accelerator laboratory. SESAME groups Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine and Turkey. The centre hosts visiting scientists for advanced basic research, such as on novel materials for batteries.

Morocco is developing two solar parks with a total capacity of 320 MW: Noor Tafilalet and Noor Atlas. The government has established the Green Energy Park in the new ‘green’ city of Benguerir 50 km north of Marrakech. Spread over an 8-hectare site, the Green Energy Park hosts laboratories specializing in solar photovoltaics, desalination using solar energy and other strategic areas. The new Mohammed VI University is situated just down the road.

Benguerir is not the only sustainable city under development. One of the first in the Arab world was Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates. By 2030, half of Masdar City’s power should come from renewables.

Other sustainable cities are under construction in Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. In Algeria, Hassi Messaoud is under construction; it is ultimately expected to house 80,000 inhabitants.

Egypt built no fewer than 12 new cites over 2007–2018 and plans to add another 15. Criteria for buildings in the new cities include the installation of solar panels on 70% of rooftops.

Saudi Arabia is planning the futuristic city of Neom, to be located near the borders of Egypt, Israel and Jordan. It is to be home to communities that are hyperconnected through artificial intelligence and 100% clean energy.

Jordan plans to make its capital, Amman, a smart, sustainable city, thanks to support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development since 2017.

As we saw earlier, the Arab share of scientific output on renewable sources of energy is highest for solar energy, followed by wind turbine technologies.

However, growth has been fastest in the fields of smart-grid technologies and sustainable transportation, such as hybrid and electric vehicles.

The three top Arab countries for the number of scientific publications per million inhabitants on solar photovoltaics are Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. These countries have shown strong growth in academic publishing in this field, as have Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and, above all, Morocco.

Morocco has also shown strong growth in scientific publishing on wind turbine technologies. Of note is that output on this topic has doubled in each of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

For smart-grid technologies, output has at least doubled in numerous Arab countries, including those planning smart and sustainable cities: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.

There is greater homogeneity among countries when it comes to the volume of scientific output on sustainable transportation. Here, output is still modest, even if it has at least doubled in all but Algeria and Lebanon.

On the broad topic of biofuels and biomass, it is Egypt and Saudi Arabia which show the greatest publication intensity. Scientific output remains very modest for other Arab countries, despite signs of growth.

Governments themselves recognize that they need to do more to facilitate technology transfer to industry and to support start-ups. They have, thus, adopted a number of policies in recent years that should support the development of renewable energies in the Arab world.

For example, Morocco’s Innov Invest Fund introduced in 2018 supports business incubators, via a World Bank loan.

Tunisia’s Start-up Law (2018) provides legal and financial incentives for start-ups, such as corporate tax exemptions. Established in 2019, the National Centre for Innovation (2019) provides a digital platform to help public and private stakeholders engage directly.

Established in 2019, Jordan’s National Innovation Centre is an online platform that co-ordinates innovative projects, collects data and allows public and private stakeholders to engage with one another directly.

In Qatar, the Product Development Fund of the Science and Technology Park established in 2009 covers up to half of the cost of product and service development targeting local needs.

Released in 2019, Egypt’s National Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2030 foresees the launch of new financing programmes for research through public–private partnerships, as part of efforts to overcome the private sector’s reluctance to fund research.

Given the importance of funding for the energy transition, the Islamic Development Bank is pivoting towards science. Its Science, Technology and Innovation Policy has been developed in partnership with UNESCO. Through this policy, the bank hopes to help member countries achieve their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The bank has also launched Engage, a digital platform offering innovators, small and medium-sized enterprises, governments and non-governmental organizations alike three main services: match-making, technology transfer and calls for proposals in the field of innovation.

This article is based on a presentation by Susan Schneegans, Editor-in-Chief of the UNESCO Science Report (2021), to the Fourth International Conference on Sustainable Engineering Techniques held at the Middle Technical University in Baghdad, Iraq, on 4 October 2022.

Schneegans Susan