The MENA region receives between 22% and 26% of all solar energy
striking the earth. This translates to a potential for solar energy per square kilometer per
year equivalent to the energy generated from 1 to 2 million barrels of oil. Despite this,
the region continues to deplete limited resources and escalate tensions over competition
for the use of these resources. The MENA region only holds 1.8% of the world
installed capacity of solar water heaters and 0.68% of the installed PV worldwide
capacity. Governments of the Arab world often don’t regard environmental protection
and associated methods, renewable energy, as an economically or developmentally
important. As a result the effort is often unfocused and driven simply by modest
concern for international treaties. This chapter presents some of the challenges facing
the implementation of solar powered technologies in the Arab world. These challenges
are related to both the technologies themselves and the political and social factors.
Keywords: Arab world, Battery, Efficiency, Obstacles, Passive solar buildings,
Photovoltaic, Solar cookers, Solar dryers, Solar electricity, Storage, Water
heaters.
