Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

 CAIRO: Middle Eastern and North African nations (MENA) have three times more potential in developing solar power than the current world’s capacity, a report in the Khaleej Times reported. The pronouncement comes a no surprise to experts who have long viewed the region as a possible bread basket for harnessing the sun.

“We have known for a long time this is a very real possibility and a few nations, including Egypt, are making this a reality,” said Ahmed Ghanem, an Egyptian environment ministry official.

The report stated that regional countries, such as Jordan and Lebanon, are becoming more familiar with solar energy and green potential. “Now they are no more strangers to these prophecies of going green,” the report stated.

According to Green Prophet, a leading environmental news organization, Israel is one of the leaders in solar development and has been saluted by a number of environmental leaders for their efforts. It said that even the United Nations has asked the Jewish state to increase solar energy in the country to reduce its reliance on non-renewable resources.

Despite the optimism, across the region, solar development is lacking funding for further growth, the report stated. According to Ibrahim El Hussenei, the reason behind this is due to large abundance of oil and fossil fuels. He is a partner at an energy project development company called Booz Company in London.

Hussenei suggests further that the growing need of power energies of the world can be fulfilled from both the Middle East and North Africa.

In Egypt, the government hopes that by 2020, at least 10 percent of its energy consumption comes from the use of solar and wind energy in order to combat expected energy problems facing the country. Other Middle Eastern and North African nations are following suit in the effort to promote solar energy.

“They have a lot of sun, so why not harness this for the betterment of society,” added Ghanem.

BM