MENA Weekly Roundup: Iraq Begins Construction of 1 GW Solar Project
Here are some noteworthy cleantech news and announcements from around the Middle East and North Africa region this week
March 17, 2025
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Iraq started constructing its largest solar power project, Basra Sun, with a total capacity of 1,000 MW in the Basra province. The civil work on the project, which spans approximately 22,500 acres in the Basra desert, has also begun. The project will comprise four units of 250 MW capacity each. It is one of the four sub-projects of the Gas Growth Integrated Project developed by a consortium of TotalEnergies with a 45% stake, Basrah Oil Company with 30%, and QatarEnergy with 25%.
ACWA Power, a utility and hydrogen developer based in Riyadh, and a consortium led by the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa), ORNX Consortium, were selected to develop green hydrogen projects in Morocco. The ORNX Consortium also comprises U.S.-based Ortus, Spain’s Acciona, and Germany’s Nordex. It will be the third green hydrogen project for ACWA Power in the Middle East and North Africa region, following the under-construction $8.4 billion Neom green hydrogen project in Saudi Arabia and another potential multibillion-dollar project planned in Tunisia.
The Egyptian government entered a capacity purchase agreement with AMEA Power, a Dubai-based renewable energy developer, to implement two large-scale battery energy storage projects. The cumulative capacity of the two projects is 1,500 MWh. One of them is a 500 MWh project located in the Zafarana village on the Gulf of Suez coast. The other project is the Benban 1000 MWh battery storage system. AMEA Power will also build the battery projects’ transformers and grid connection infrastructure.
Renaissance Services, an Oman-based services solutions, integrated facilities management, and accommodation solutions provider, installed over 405,000 smart meters, including 224,000 meters, in the final two months of 2024. The company’s utility services include manual meter reading, site surveys, troubleshooting, and operational support across Zones 1, 2, and 3 of the Nama electricity distribution networks.