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Spain’s TSK Group has announced a deal worth $385m to develop a 50MW solar plant in the Shagaya region, some 100km from Kuwait City, for commercial operation in 2017. The photovoltaic (PV) plant – Kuwait’s biggest – will supply some 100,000 households in the region, which borders Saudi Arabia and Iraq, TSK Group said. Electricity and water minister Ahmed Al-Jassar has said Kuwait intends to install 4.5GW of mainly solar PV and wind renewable energy capacity by 2030. Kuwait Oil Company and Spain’s Gestamp Solar have agreements to install 10MW solar PV plants. All three plants will be government-funded.

Sheikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Al-Maktoum’s Ameri Energy is involved in a project to develop a 250MW power plant in Ghana. Ameri recently signed a deal with the Ghanaian government alongside its partner Metka, a Greek power contractor, to carry out the build-own-operate-transfer project. Dubai-based Ameri says it is active in energy, infrastructure, construction and trade. Sheikh Ahmed is a great-grandson of Maktoum II, who ruled until 1906. He has several brothers, including the recently married Rashid (an equestrian and horse-racing fan), and is vice-chairman of MBM Group, a Dubai royal family office and investment company.

The Authority for Electricity Regulation (AER) has issued a licence for a pilot solar power plant in the kingdom. The 303KW plant will be located in Al-Mazyouna, in Dhofar governorate; a two-year licence was officially issued on 3 July to Bahwan Astonfield Solar Energy Company (a partnership between US firm Astonfield and Bahwan Engineering Group’s Multitech investment arm), which has a power purchase contract with Rural Areas Electricity Company (Raeco).

Nasdaq-listed First Solar has signed an agreement to supply 2.36m photovoltaic modules to power the 200MW second phase of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Solar Park. The facility is being developed by Saudi-based Acwa Power and Spain’s TSK. First Solar modules already power the Mohammed Bin Rashid park’s 13MW first phase. They will also be installed at Jordan’s 52.5MW Shams Maan solar PV plant, which is scheduled for completion in H2 2016.

The European Commission is tendering for its project to expand the European Union (EU)’s co-operation with the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) on developing clean energy technologies. The EU-GCC Clean Energy Network II contract envisages the successful bidder promoting exchanges of experience and know-how, and co-ordinating and promoting joint research, demonstrations and development of projects in GCC countries. The European stakeholders will include energy-related research entities, universities, administrations, utilities and industry, as well as relevant organisations and stakeholders in GCC countries, such as Abu Dhabi-based Masdar.

Hugely ambitious Riyadh-based water and power developer Acwa Power has signed another important independent power producer (IPP) contract in Oman, reached financial close on the third phase of the Ouarzazate solar project in Morocco, and is lining up potentially 8GW of thermal and renewable energy schemes in Egypt, according to a welter of company announcements, conference presentations and GSN’s conversations with industry players during the past month. Acwa is active as an owner and operator across ten countries, notably Dubai, where this year it won a contract to build the 200MW second phase of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

A Japanese joint venture (JV) made up of Mitsubishi Corporation and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has won a tender to build and run a power plant and a water desalination plant near Doha, as Qatar moves ahead with a $3.15bn Independent Power and Water Project (IWPP) it hopes will cover forecast demand from 2017. The facility, to be commissioned in stages between 2017 and 2018, will be the biggest power and water facility in Qatar

Finland’s Wärtsilä Corporation has received orders to supply two power plants to Rural Areas Electricity Company (Raeco), for installation in rural areas of south-eastern Oman which are outside the national grid. In a statement on 27 April, Wärtsilä said the larger unit, comprising seven Wärtsilä 32 engines with combined output of 56MW, would be located on the island of Masirah. The other power plant, to be located in Saih Al-Khairat, will have six 32 engines, with a total output of 48MW.

President of the Republic of Korea (Korea) Park Geun-hye rounded off the Gulf tour which began on 1 March in Kuwait with two days in Saudi Arabia, followed by visits to the UAE and Qatar. It was a productive journey. According to The Korea Herald, 44 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed by Park’s delegation, while business delegates travelling with her won contracts worth $900m. One of the most important agreements was an MoU with Saudi Arabia for a joint three-year study looking at the feasibility of building Korean-made SMART (System-integrated modular advanced reactor) nuclear reactors in the kingdom.

A consortium led by Saudi-based Acwa Power has won a tender for phase two of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, south-east of Dubai. Acwa Power will finance, build and operate a 200MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant, with Spanish engineering and construction company TSK serving as the technology provider and minority partner. The 15 January announcement by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) will see Acwa Power receive a 25-year power purchase agreement starting in 2017. Dewa will retain a 51% stake in the project with the rest going to the developer, split 85%/15% between Acwa and TSK.

Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar is to jointly develop the Gulf Co-operation Council’s first large-scale wind farm in Oman, the company said on 22 October. Masdar, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company, signed an agreement with Oman’s Rural Areas Electricity Company (Raeco) to build the $125m, 50MW wind farm in Dhofar; construction is due to begin in Q4 2015.Masdar said the project – which will consist of up to 25 wind turbines – would generate enough clean energy to power 16,000 homes and mitigate 110,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Dubai Electricity & Water Authority has placed a $55m order with Zurich-based ABB to build a substation that will integrate power from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum solar park. The park is expected to cover an area of more than 40 square kilometres and produce 1,000MW of clean energy when completed in 2030. It fits in with the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, which sees natural gas as contributing 71% of electricity, nuclear 12%, clean coal 12% and solar 5%. ABB has secured a turnkey contract, and is responsible for the design, installation, commissioning and start-up of the plant, the company said in a statement on 27 October.

While in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated Tehran’s intention to continue working with Moscow on nuclear energy. “We are negotiating power generation using nuclear energy with Russia,” Rouhani told journalists on 27 September. “We will continue co-operation with Russia, as well as with other nations.”Rouhani said Tehran was, so far, satisfied with the results of this collaboration – a statement that carries a serious political message. First, Rouhani demonstrated to the Russians that the idea of extending co-operation with the Kremlin has support from the top level of the Iranian political establishment.

Before Japan’s Fukushima disaster and the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings of 2010-11, Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries, as well as Egypt and some other North African states, were seriously considering nuclear power as a long-term energy replacement for hydrocarbons. Now, only the UAE and possibly Saudi Arabia look on track to make a real commitment to nuclear energy (although Egypt and Morocco have both expressed interest in major projects). The first stage of Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec)’s 5.6GW power plant at Barakah, in Abu Dhabi’s western region, is due to come on line by 2017.

Contractors are looking at a major new business stream from ambitious projects to exploit Saudi Arabia’s outstanding solarity (some 4,000 hrs/yr of sunshine, and average annual solar irradiation exceeding 1,800kWh/m2); conference organisers are lining up to hold events across the Gulf and in Europe that highlight the commitment of Saudi and other Gulf administrations to renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions. For all its historic commitment to oil, this is not the first time that harnessing solar energy has been mooted as a solution to the kingdom’s energy problems. But with national oil company Saudi Aramco’s annual report warning that local demand for crude had increased “to the point where volumes meant for exports may fall to unacceptably low levels in the coming two decades”, pressure is mounting on several fronts for a more diversified energy policy to be implemented.