The Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia) has reviewed the developments in key photovoltaic markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in its newly-released Photovoltaic Market Outlook 2023 Report. It reviews the development of the photovoltaic industry in this region, as well as green hydrogen, floating photovoltaic systems, and robotic cleaning technologies, among others.

The Middle East and North Africa region is one of the regions with the highest solar irradiance in the world. In this report, the Mesia highlighted the most important achievements of the photovoltaic market in the major countries and regions in the MENA region in the past year, and looked forward to some new and higher goals of each country by 2030. The following is an overview of the Middle East photovoltaic markets from the Mesia.

Iran installed 8.29MW of rooftop photovoltaic systems in 2022, bringing the cumulative installed capacity of photovoltaic systems to 519MW. Due to the withdrawal of the Iranian government's power purchase agreement with private developers, future installations of large-scale photovoltaic projects will only be carried out through government tenders.

Jordan is expected to introduce legislation related to the deployment of energy storage systems in 2023. The country purchased electricity from 1,498MW of commercial PV projects through power purchase agreements and installed 1,027MW of small-scale PV systems under the net metering scheme. Jordan will be connected to Iraq's grid in 2023.

The Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia) claims that Lebanon will experience exponential growth in the field of photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage in 2022. However, the country does not have any official records of the installed capacity of PV systems it operates. The Lebanese government approved a distributed renewable energy production law in March this year (2023), allowing renewable energy producers to sell electricity directly to end users, distributors or other electricity suppliers through on-grid or off-grid power purchase agreements.

Oman will put into use its largest photovoltaic park in 2022, the Ibri photovoltaic power plant with an installed capacity of 500MW. Another two photovoltaic power plants with a cumulative installed capacity of 500MW are planned to be commissioned in late 2023 and early 2024.

Qatar plans to introduce net metering regulations in 2023, and opened the Al Kharsaah photovoltaic power plant with an installed capacity of 800MW in October 2022.

Saudi Arabia’s PV market is expected to reach 40GW by 2030, with market growth driven by auctions, utility contracts, corporate power purchase agreements and state-owned projects. The country plans to open and operate a 2GW photovoltaic park by the end of 2025.

The Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia) said Turkey began updating its energy storage legislation in 2022, which is expected to be passed soon. Last year, the Turkish government began requiring that more than 5% of the country's buildings with a floor area of more than 5,000 square meters get more than 5% of their electricity from photovoltaic systems or wind power facilities.

The UAE introduced a regulation in 2022 to increase the share of renewable energy generation in the country's electricity mix to 60% by 2035. "These regulations represent the first legally binding regulatory framework for clean and renewable energy in the Middle East power sector," concluded the Middle East Photovoltaic Industry Association (Mesia).