Potential of rooftop solar photovoltaics in the energy system evolution of the United Arab Emirates

•Solar photovoltaics (PV) is becoming more widely deployed in MENA countries.•The UAE has been begun to adopt solar rooftop PV.•Policy and regulatory frameworks must be developed for rooftop solar in the UAE to succeed.•Dubai has taken the lead by implementing a net metering solar rooftop scheme.•Rooftop solar in the UAE can succeed but may require near term government support.

Solar power, and in particular solar photovoltaics (solar PV), is a rapidly growing source of energy in many regions of the world. However, the contribution of solar power in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries has been minor even though these countries possess some of the best levels of solar insolation globally. Recently, though, this has been changing. Changing hydrocarbon markets in the region, technology advances in solar PV and rapidly falling costs make solar power increasingly attractive to MENA countries that are actively diversifying their energy systems away from dependence on hydrocarbon fuel sources. Although utility-scale CSP and PV plants have been the focus through 2014, rooftop solar PV is being positioned to play potentially an important role in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s future energy mix. In this paper, rooftop solar PV in the UAE is taken as a case study for the evolution of a MENA energy system toward an increasingly sustainable power generation mix. The results show that rooftop solar PV can be an economically viable technology choice and hence will increasingly become part of regional energy strategies as technology costs continue to fall and tariff reforms continue to gain traction.