GE EXPECTS 24% GROWTH FOR REGION’S RENEWABLES
▶ The company wants to snap up contracts in the booming sector
The regional renewables sector is set to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 24 per cent by 2025 as countries accelerate capacity deployment to meet looming targets, according to the president and chief executive of GE Renewable Energy in the Middle East.
“In 2016, we saw a good ramp-up of renewable development in the business of solar as well as wind, and that’s going to continue to grow.
“The expectation is that by 2025 we’re going to see at least 24 per cent CAGR in the renewable business.
“Around 25 per cent of the renewable mix in the region is going to come from renewable resources,” Manar Al Moneef told The National.
GE, which has been staunching losses across its power generation business, is looking to pursue opportunities in the growing renewables region in the Middle East, where oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and consumers such as Turkey and Pakistan are looking to ramp up capacity for both wind and solar.
In a January interview with
The National, Jerome Pecresse, the president and chief executive of GE Renewable Energy, estimated the Middle East would require $30 billion to $40bn in capital investment, with the wind segment growing faster than others.
“Many countries have put significant targets. Turkey has put a target of 20 gigawatts of wind only, Saudi Arabia has announced 9.5 gigawatts, Egypt has 7 gigawatts, Morocco has 2 gigawatts in the next two years.
“Quite good targets by all countries, and we’re keen to be a good player in this market,” said Ms Al Moneef.
Saudi Arabia’s renewables cycle this year, which is expected to develop more than 4 gigawatts of solar and wind projects, would be a “competitive” market for GE, which is eyeing the nascent wind market in the Gulf.
On Tuesday, the Saudi Energy Ministry’s Renewable Energy Project Development Office received bids for the country’s inaugural wind scheme in Dumat Al Jandal in the northern Al Jouf region, where developers such as Acwa Power, one of the bidders, expect to break ground this year.
Apart from the Gulf, GE’s Middle East business gamut, which stretches to include countries such as Turkey, was bullish about the prospects for big projects on the back of ambitious targets. “Turkey is the largest market. You see Egypt is starting. There is huge momentum and big tenders in Morocco. A few years ago they launched 850 megawatts.
“This year they have a couple of hundreds, next year they have 500MW, and they have been in this for quite some time,” said Ms Al Moneef.
The company was also eyeing fledgling developments in Tunisia as well as Pakistan, which has begun to embrace renewables to steer its faulty power infrastructure away from reliance on coal.
“Pakistan [is developing] renewables in a big way.
“They have 600MW of installed capacity in onshore wind and last year they launched 500MW,” said Ms Al Moneef. “There is another 500MW planned this year, which may be pushed to the end of the year.”