15. Solar and Wind Energy–Present and Future Energy Prospects in the Middle East and North Africa

The countries of the Middle East possess an enormous potential for the development of renewable energy resources. This region of the globe captures a plentiful amount of direct sunshine, which in turn creates both wind and solar energy. Tapping into this potential will dramatically reduce fossil fuel dependency, and thus create a cleaner environment and new platforms of socio-economic growth. Although previous attempts to evaluate this renewable energy potential have been small in scale and scattered, they have demonstrated an encouraging outlook for the entire region and lead to the contention that there is a sufficient amount of renewable energy to meet all of these countries’ energy needs. This chapter examines future renewable energy exploitation goals for Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries and explains how solar and wind resource assessment and site selection models, along with strong governmental involvement, can create success or failure in emerging renewable markets.