The growing of the solar energy market in Yemen ... and its increasing penetration in the residential and agricultural sector
English - Sunday 28 June 2020 الساعة 03:08 pm
Aden, Newsyemen:
The solar energy sector in Yemen has witnessed more expansion during the past few years, allowing it to unleash a billions of emerging market.
Yemen has a geographical location, making it characterized by strong potentials for renewable solar energy, not yet exploited, which can be used to generate electricity for the population, water desalination, agricultural irrigation, and other dynamic sectors.
In a study entitled “Solar Energy Uses in Yemen” released in 2018, the total capacity of solar energy systems installed in Yemen and its rural areas between 2015 and 2017 reached about 300 MW.
In another report issued by RCREEE Organization and the World Bank project in the year 2017, on (Assessment of the Status of Solar Energy Systems in Yemen), about one billion dollars has been invested in residential solar energy systems in Yemen over the past five years, and the report added that the solar energy sector in the country it will be sustainable for at least two decades.
75% of families living in cities use solar energy systems, and nearly 50% of families that live in the Yemeni countryside.
Before the outbreak of the war in 2015, the solar energy system was not known in Yemen, but it has become of great importance in recent years, especially in the agricultural sector, which constitutes up to 14.5% of the national GDP, and absorbs 54% of the workforce in the country.
Once there is a decrease in the quantities of diesel offered in the market, and sometimes completely absent it due to the increase in its prices, farmers find it difficult to irrigate their crops, and it is estimated that the farms need for diesel, at one hour, reaches about 40 liters.
The high or absence of diesel used to irrigate the trees from the water wells resulted in the drought and death of nearly a million fruitful palm trees in a number of Al-Durahimi areas in Hodeidah Governorate.
After the fuel-dependent irrigation system stopped, Yemeni farmers suffered heavy losses, their crops were drought, and they had to search for alternative solutions, so solar energy was the savior.
The cultivated land in Yemen is covered by water from three main sources: rain, dams, and groundwater, and groundwater is more energy-related to lifting water from deep wells and pumping them.
From a positive point of view, this shift in the use of solar energy would enhance Yemen's role in reducing the problem of pollution, whereas, electric power generators working with petroleum products and fossil fuels are among the most important causes.
There are predictions of growing potential for the solar energy sector in Yemen, not only in the residential and agricultural sector, but also in other dynamic sectors such as the health sector, the commercial and industrial sector, the water sector, and other sectors.
