By Wu Siya

 

DUBAI, Oct. 25 (China Economic Net)– "Currently, our market share in the Middle East has reached 20-30 percent," a LONGi Green Energy staff told China Economic Net. On October 20, the LONGi Middle East and Africa Training Center was inaugurated in Dubai, UAE, providing not only team training, but also energize local distributors, installers, as well as other partners. “At the beginning of this year, we have already signed a total of 500MW distribution orders for latest product Hi-MO 6 photovoltaic modules with numerous distribution partners from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia at the 15th Abu Dhabi World Future Energy Summit (WFES). The energy transformation actively pursued by Middle Eastern countries coincides with China’s carbon peak and neutrality goals.”

 

 

Earlier this year, LONGi has announced the ?launch of a Solar Academy for Middle East distribution and C&I, an all-encompassing training program specifically ?designed to equip sales engineers, installers and EPC personnel with the knowledge and ?skills needed to be effective in the field of solar energy.

 

LONGi’s layout shows the bright prospects for China’s new energy, especially photovoltaic companies, to expand opportunities in the Middle East, which is inseparable from the urgent need of Arab countries for the overall transformation of new energy at the national level.

 

Take UAE being an example, for the past few years, the country has launched the construction of a series of PV projects. It is expected that by 2025, the UAE’s installed PV capacity will reach 8.5GW. According to statistics from the Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA), the current value of the PV market in the Middle East and North Africa is approximately USD 20 billion. In the next five years, PV projects worth USD 5 billion will be put into operation in the Middle East. According to reports, the low-carbon energy industry in the Middle East and North Africa will have a project value of USD 257 billion by 2030, among which PV account for 50 percent, which means that the Middle East will be a market worth nearly RMB 1 trillion.

 

InfoLink statistics showed that in 2022, the Middle East imported a total of 11.4GW of PV modules from China, an increase of 78 percent compared to 2021. Among them, the UAE has imported about 3.6GW of modules from China in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 340 percent, making it China’s largest module customer in the region.

 

Li Zhenguo, founder and president of LONGi, gave a speech at the 2023 ESG Global Leaders Conference held in September, pointing out that from its launch in 2012 to 2022, LONGi’s cumulative production of PV products in terms of silicon wafers has reached 290GW. As of the end of last year, these PV products can output more than 1,148.2 billion kilowatt-hours of green electricity globally, which is equivalent to avoiding approximately 536 million tons of carbon emissions, accounting for 1.46 percent of global energy-related carbon emissions in 2022. 

 

“According to calculations, the direct energy consumption from quartz ore mining to PV module production is only about 0.4 kilowatt-hours per watt, while the power generation of each watt of PV modules during its full life cycle (30 years) is about 45 kilowatt-hours, of which means photovoltaic converts the 0.4 kilowatt-hour it consumes into 45 kilowatt-hours of green electricity, and the final energy efficiency is 100 times greater than its production consumption. Such efficiency undoubtedly means that the PV industry plays a decisive role in global sustainable development goals. This year, we will continue to release the 2023 Climate Action White Paper at the 28th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 28) to demonstrate our comprehensive practices to tackle climate change.”

 

Taking a global view, the Middle East has abundant solar radiation resources and a desert climate with little rain, which could be defined as a precious fertile ground for the development of the solar energy. Countries in this region are also trying to gradually get rid of their over-reliance on oil economy. Such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia are gradually increasing investment in new energy and have set ambitious renewable energy goals. “As climate change is a global issue, the UAE feels compelled to share its knowledge and solutions with all parties to support collective efforts to reach net zero by 2050, ” noted Abdulaziz Alobaidli, chief operating officer of Masdar, the UAE's flagship renewable energy company.