Demand for Solar Panels is Growing in the Middle East
EMIRATES BUSINESS - Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia are planning to adopt feed-in tariff policy to promote solar energy, said Zhengrong Shi, one of the biggest suppliers of solar equipment in the Middle East.
Zhengrong’s statement has found support in a comment from International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) Interim Director-General Helene Pelosse who said GCC countries are considering policy initiatives to meet their targets of achieving an appreciable amount of power supply from renewable sources by 2015.
A feed-in tariff policy calls for the government to buy power produced from renewable sources at higher rates. Shi is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Suntech Power Holdings Company Limited, a Chinese company that went public last year. The Middle East accounts for a miniscule percentage of Suntech’s global sales but Shi projects an increase in this figure.
He said an attractive feed-in tariff policy can work wonders for solar technology in the region. Shi cites Europe as an example where feed-in tariff policies have helped solar technology and where a company like his sells 80 per cent of its products
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