Accelerating Residential Solar in the UAE

IRENA, together with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) organised a workshop on accelerating the uptake of residential solar in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The diverse range of participants, from local policy makers to financiers and business representatives, discussed perspectives for distributed solar PV in the region, potentials for cost reduction and cost best practices globally for residential PV, with a focus on how to integrate the observed experiences into ongoing residential PV deployment initiatives in the region. The workshop covered topics such as how innovation can spur the residential PV market in the United Arab Emirates, an overview of grid-connected rooftop solar PV projects in Kuwait, policies adapted to the UAE context that can stimulate market development and bring down solar PV costs, an overview of DEWA’s Shams Dubai rooftop initiative and lessons learnt from participants in the early development of residential solar PV markets.