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(A)Two millennia after the ancient Egyptians dropped their solar deity, Ra, their descendants arerediscovering the power of the sun. In the southern desert, half an hour’s drive from Aswan, Egypt isputting the finishing touches to Benban, one of the world’s largest solar farms. Its 6m panels produce 1.5gigawatts (GW) of energy, enough to power over 1m homes.Much of the modern Middle East and north Africa was built on oil. It exports more of the black stuffthan any other region. A quarter of Middle Eastern power comes from it, compared with 3% fromrenewable sources. __61__. And in the long run the global trend is towards cleaner energy sources.Renewable-energy capacity in the Middle East has doubled to 40 gigawatts (GW) over the past decadeand is set to double again by 2024.With its vast deserts, the Arab world’s most abundant clean-energy source is the sun. Non-oileconomies were first to take advantage of it. More than a third of Morocco’s energy now comes fromrenewables (in the EU the average is 18%). Oil producers are catching up. A big project in Abu Dhabi,the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), recently received the world’s lowest tariff bid for solarpower. Oman, Kuwait and Qatar have large projects, too. The Middle East as a whole generates 9 GWofsolar power, up from a paltry 91 megawatts a decade ago. Between 2008 and 2018 investment in the fieldincreased 12-fold.__62__. Solar farms are cheaper, faster and safer to build and maintain than oil and gas plants.The UAE’s new solar plant will generate electricity at roughly two-thirds the cost of gas and a third thatof oil, even at today’s low prices. Several countries in the region speak of becoming renewable-energyexporters.Investors, though, still have cause to hesitate. __63__. Take Muhammad bin Salman, the de factoruler of Saudi Arabia, who has made renewable energy a pillar of his economic-reform plan. In 2018 heand SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate, announced the world’s biggest solar-power-generation project inthe Saudi desert. It was shelved six months later.Regional turmoil scares investors away, too. Iraq’s electricity minister blames protests for derailinghis plans to meet 20% of demand with renewables by 2030. __64__. Turbulent Egypt offered to buy solarpower at above-market rates in order to attract investors to Benban. There is also a risk that, in the shortterm, cheap oil dims countries’ ardor for solar power. Saudi Arabia, for example, might prefer to burnmore oil for energy. __65__.But such projects are largely driven by the private sector, and they continue to compare favorablywith fossil fuels. “We have seen an acceleration in tenders during Covid-19,” says Paddy Padmanathan ofACWA Power, a Saudi firm that operates renewable-energy projects. “Why spend money taking fuel outof the ground and processing it rather than relying on God-given free sun and wind?”(AB) In a decade we’ll still need oil for plastics and other petrochemicals, but not for energy(AC) The growing competitiveness of renewables makes analysts optimistic that the trend will continue(AD) Declining revenues could force oil-producing states to suspend new solar projects(AE) The reasons for a low capacity factor can include things over which we have no control, such as theweather(BC) Conflicts in neighboring countries have damned Jordan’s efforts to export solar power to Lebanon(BD) For a start, Arab autocrats often promise more than they could deliver in reality(BE) But the recent collapse in oil prices is a reminder that it is risky to depend on a single source ofrevenue
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