*  Saudi Arabia : Saudi battles excess heat, dust to build solar power. May 23, 2012 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, may finally be getting serious about overcoming the technical and financial hurdles for tapping its other main resource: sunshine.


    * Saudi Arabia:  SkyFuel Enters Saudi Arabia SolarPower Market - ARVADA, CO, Jun 21, 2012  SkyFuel, Inc. has confirmed plans to enter the solar thermal market in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with their high performance parabolic trough collector, and seeks local partners to establish its presence there. SkyTrough(R) is the optimum technology solution for the recently announced concentrating solar power (CSP) market program promoted by the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE). Once implemented, the program will make Saudi Arabia the largest CSP market in the world, with the goal of 25 GW by 2032. What makes SkyTrough(R) so attractive to projects in Saudi Arabia are its high performance relative to cost, and high local manufacturing content.

     * UAE: Masdar Institute, IRENA and Stakeholders Officially Release UAE Solar Atlasat Rio+20 Earth Summit 2012 in BrazilJun 20, 2012 - 03:51 - WAM Rio De Janeiro-Brazil/Abu Dhabi, Jun 20th, 2012 (WAM)--Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, the Abu Dhabi-headquartered International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and other collaboration partners today jointly announced the official commissioning of the UAE Solar Atlas. The beta version of the Atlas was released earlier in April 2012.

    * UAE: Solar Middle East delivers major opportunities for manufacturers, suppliers - The Middle East's lead role in the growth of the solar power industry will be underlined by a new event in the UAE, creating major opportunities for manufacturers and suppliers worldwide to capitalise on heavy investment by regional governments. The launch of the three-day Solar Middle East exhibition in Dubai, announced today, reflects a strong regional focus on development of solar power facilities, with at least ten major projects worth a combined $6.8bn under way in the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. 

     * Qatar - QSTec seeks talent to power solar industry. QSTec chief financial officer Abdulla Saif al-Mesallam was addressing an international audience from a panel session focussing on the MENA region at the Intersolar Europe Exhibition. "QSTec is currently made up of a multinational and multi-cultural workforce. We are looking for talented industry professionals to join the team as we develop a new industry for Qatar and the region from the ground up," he explained.

    * Kuwait: Chevron May Use Solar in Oilfield Shared by Kuwait, Saudi. Chevron Corp. (CVX) is considering using solar energy to produce the steam needed to pump heavy crude from an oilfield straddling Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Chevron may start a pilot solar plant at the end of 2013, Hashim al-Rifaai, chairman and managing director of Kuwait Gulf Oil Co., told reporters in Abu Dhabi today. Energy from the sun would heat water to create steam, which would then be injected underground to make the heavy oil liquid enough to flow.

    * MENA:   Ernst & Young 2012 MENA Cleantech Survey Report released. E&Y took the opportunity to survey experts in the Project Village and at WFES and to leverage a strong regional network in the Middle East and North Africa to launch this year's MENA Cleantech Survey.
In order to gauge sentiment regarding cleantech development in MENA, Ernst & Young surveyed 190 people from different sectors, such as banking, technology, public and private sectors, NGOs, and academic and civil society, from countries inside and outside the MENA region.

    * MENA: SunPower Brings Solar to Middle East With Total Backing 

  

Solar Technology Focus: 

Solar Islands - video presentation - Ras al Khaimah, U.A.E. 

The Swiss Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin visited the construction site of the Solar Islands prototype in Ras al Khaimah. The construction site for the land based Solar Islands prototype was now defined in RAK (Ras Al Khaimah). The RAK Investment Authority provided a very well suited site in the industrial area of RAK, 1 km off the shore and next to R.A.K Ceramics and to the building of CSEM-UAE. See picture of the construction site.

Solar Investing:

Solar profits to be boosted by emergent technologies going forward. Generous funding has driven the new technology increasing profitability through a general reduction of cost per watt, the new report has found. The result is that profit margins will return to low double-digit figures by 2014. 

   

Upcoming Solar Energy Events, Exhibitions & Conferences -   
2012 Calendar:
June 28-30  RENEC 2012, Istanbul, Turkey 
August 21-23 4th PV Guangzhou 2012, Guangzhou, China
September 3-4  PV Development Summit South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
September 10  PV Technology Conference North Africa 2012, Casablanca, Morocco
September 10-13 Solar Power International, Orlando, Florida, USA
September 16-17  2012 Annual Solar Arabia Summit , Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
September 17-19  MEED Middle East Renewables, Dubai, UAE
September 17-19  2012 MENA Solar Power Forum,  Abu Dhabi, UAE
September 26-28  2012 Arab Water & Power Forum (AWPF), Dubai, UAE
September 26-28  World Clean Technology Summit (WCTS) - Kampala, Uganda 
October 22-24  APVIA 2012 - PV Asia Pacific Expo , Singapore 
October 30-31  Power, Infrastructure Finance & Investment MENA, Abu Dhabi
November 5-8  The Big 5 MIddle East, Dubai, UAE
November  6-7 Arab Renewable Energy Congress, Dubai, UAE
November 13-14 Solar Industry Summit - Middle East 2012, Dubai, UAE
November 14-16 EnerSol - WSEF 2012 ,Tunis , Tunisia
November 26 - December 7  Qatar COP 18 , Doha, Qatar
December 1-4  SolarTec 2012  Cairo, Egypt
December 2-4  Saudi Water & Power Forum, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
December 8-11 Saudi Arabia Smart Grid Conference & Exhibition

2013 Calendar:
January 15-17 World Future Energy Summit, Abu Dhabi, UAE
February 4-6  2013 Power-Gen Middle East, Doha, Qatar
February 17-19  2013 Solar MIddle East, Dubai , UAE
September 3-5   GulfSol 2013, Dubai , UAE

Solar Survey: "Economic returns on investments in solar energy technologies within the GCC". Kindly follow this link and complete the questionnaire. Please refer to the attached document with reference definitions for any uncertainty regarding the questions.  The results of this study will be available to all the respondents of the survey.