indicate that more than 60 per cent of the world’s population could
experience severe water scarcity by 2040. Ensuring water security is a
daunting challenge and, in many countries, tantamount to national
of seawater, an energy-intensive process, provides water to many parts
of the globe. The Middle East, with limited freshwater sources, is
heavily dependent on desalination. It accounts for 45 per cent of the
world’s total seawater desalination capacity.
water and energy are closely intertwined in the Middle East. In Saudi
Arabia, around 10 per cent of the electricity. Is used for seawater
desalination. In Abu Dhabi, the desalination sector contributes more
than 22 per cent of the Emirate’s total CO2 emissions.
change is already leading to environmental changes in our seas and
oceans. Phytoplankton productivity may be a casualty of climate change,
which may increase the energy intensity of seawater desalination
energy and the climate are inextricably interconnected in the Middle
East and beyond. Solar energy must sit at the centre of this nexus for
the following four reasons.
solar energy is clean with a minimal carbon footprint. Studies have
projected life-cycle emissions from solar power to be 4—12 gCO2eq/kWh
(note: grams of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour electricity generated),
compared with 80—110 and 400—1000 gCO2eq/kWh of fossil fuel burning
plants with and without carbon capture and sequestration, respectively.
often than not, the complaint against solar energy is for its low areal
energy intensity, which necessitates the use of large land areas in any
form of its utilisation. However, Japan is third in the world in total
photovoltaics (PV) installation capacity and Singapore is on its way to
producing 4 per cent of its total electricity from solar energy by 2030.
These two land-scarce countries should inspire the rest of the world.
Our will and determination can always overcome physical land
solar energy is abundantly available in most parts of the world where
there are human activities. The often-quoted statement that the solar
energy that the Earth receives in one single hour is enough to power the
entire world for one year communicates the vast abundance of solar
energy available for energy production and its unmatched potential.
solar power has a very low barrier-of-entry, which is especially true
with PV. The cost of PV has been drastically reduced. Depending on
available capital, PV can be used at any scale, from household panels to
massive industrial-scale solar farms. Nowadays, regular households can
afford small-scale PV systems even without governmental subsidies.
Cost of solar power
leads to a virtuous cycle in PV development. A very recent study
reports that the cost of solar power is lower than local grid power in
344 cities in China, even without subsidies. And in 76 of those cities,
the price of solar power was equal to or less than that of coal-fired
solar power generation consumes minimal amounts of water. To generate 1
MWh of electricity, PV consumes only 2 gallons of water whereas thermal
power plants using coal and nuclear fuel as energy sources consume 692
and 572 gallons of water, respectively. Technologies now being developed
can even turn conventional PV farms into net freshwater production
facilities while also producing electricity.
Middle East is blessed with stable and reliable solar irradiation;
arguably, it is the best quality solar irradiation in the world. In
addition, there are vast areas of land in the Middle East that remain
undeveloped and unused. The annual average solar irradiance in Saudi
Arabia (2300 kWh/m2) is more than 1.4 times that in Japan (1600 kWh/m2).
a simple calculation, if 5 per cent of the land area in Saudi Arabia
were covered with state-of-the-art PV panels, more electricity than
needed by the entire world could be produced. However, solar energy has
been considerably under-utilised in the Middle East.
status quo, solar electricity in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates accounts for less than 0.1 per cent and 1 per cent of the total
domestic electricity generation, respectively. Fortunately, giant solar
projects in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE currently being planned
demonstrate the region’s ambitions to rightfully lead the world in solar
the world is moving into a decarbonised and circular economy, solar
energy must sit at the Centre of the water-energy-climate nexus.