Mapping Solar Energy Access in the Arab Region

In its opening remarks, ESCWA welcomed national delegations from across the Arab region and underlined both the persistent structural challenges in renewable energy deployment and data systems and the growing momentum in solar energy investments and digital tools. It stressed the need to strengthen governance frameworks for data collection and sharing, expand the use of GIS, satellite imagery, AI and other advanced tools, and enhance coordination among ministries, statistical offices and research institutions to improve solar energy mapping and emissions modelling. Finally, ESCWA highlighted the role of this regional consultation, as part of the overall project, in assessing national capacities, reviewing preliminary solar PV mapping results and facilitating the exchange of country experiences.

In its opening remarks, CNRS-L highlighted the long-standing collaboration with ESCWA and stressed on the importance of focusing on three pathways throughout the project: leveraging the acquired data in decision making; capitalizing on each country’s success story in the transition from the national to the regional perspective, and ensuring that projects are sustainable in terms of financing, manpower, and data updating.

Afterwards, ESCWA presented the SDG7 progress in the Arab region as well as the challenges being faced and the available opportunities. The presentation then introduced the project titled "Improved Mapping and Monitoring of Solar Energy Access for Enhanced Climate Policy Action and Socioeconomic Resilience in ESCWA Member States", which aims to strengthen the capacity of policymakers and government officials to utilize digital and geospatial tools for solar energy planning, and addresses critical energy access challenges in the Arab region. Through regional and national consultations, policy and technical assessments, capacity-building workshops, and the development of interactive platforms, the initiative seeks to support evidence-based policy development and enhance resilience in the Arab region.

Another presentation by ESCWA focused on the outcomes of ESCWA’s policy and technical capacity assessment in the Arab region. It covered the policy landscape and alignment with SDG7 and the NDCs; the various policy, technical, and human capacity challenges faced; the role of data infrastructure as a policy enabler; and recommendations for tailored capacity-building programs. The results of ESCWA’s survey on technical capacity assessment were also presented where the regional average hovered around five out of 10 while the national averages featured more disparity amongst the member states.

The discussions that followed emphasized the importance of project sustainability, proper follow-up, and a standardized and reliable data collection system, noting challenges in verifying and gathering information, especially in rural areas. It was also highlighted that strong experience in GIS exists in some countries where it is being used to map all solar energy installations with numerous parameters that are useful for policymaking. However, it was stressed that advanced capacity building is still needed. ESCWA, in its turn, clarified that capacity building will be provided to all countries, with a focus on pilot projects in Djibouti, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen based on specific criteria and with outcomes informing future funding proposals through the stocktake that will be organized under Outcome 2 of the project.

This session featured a presentation by ESCWA and CNRS-L which detailed the solar PV detection models used, the challenges faced in adapting and fine-tuning them, the resulting improvements in terms of accuracy and completeness, and the remaining technical challenges to be mitigated or resolved. The presentation then moved on to the preliminary detection results from Lebanon and Syria which included the assumptions taken and the calculations performed to transition from detected polygons to quantified solar PV system capacities, electricity generation potential, and estimated greenhouse gas emissions savings. The results were showcased using the dashboards and platforms specifically developed for the project which featured the detection of ~253,000 solar PV systems installed in Lebanon as of 2023 and 760 in select areas in Syria.

The ensuing discussions clarified that the detection models can differentiate between solar PV panels and solar water heaters, using features such as the presence of a water tank to identify heaters and not include them. It was also confirmed that detection results have been field-calibrated and cross-checked with samples from Lebanon and Syria so far.

CNRS-L specified that the maps used are primarily commercial with a 30-cm resolution, supplemented by free Bing maps, all from 2023 so far which serves as an initial baseline and with ongoing efforts to update the maps with 2025 ones. They further elaborated on the hybrid detection model used which combined YOLO and Mask R-CNN to balance speed and accuracy. While Mask R-CNN provides high precision but may fragment satellite images, YOLO maps entire panels without fragmentation, making it faster and efficient for large-scale detection. 

ESCWA also clarified the estimation process adopted to calculate solar PV capacity using the detected panel areas, the installation tilt angle, and the average solar PV panel power density. It also clarified that the estimation of annual electricity generation and greenhouse gas emissions savings are based on the solar irradiance for each site and the national electricity grid emissions factor, respectively.

This session featured 21 presentations from Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, State of Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen on the national renewable energy and statistics landscape delivered by the attending members states. The presentations on renewable energy covered the following aspects:

• Energy and renewable energy legislative and institutional framework
• Policy gaps and challenges related to energy and renewable energy
• National and sub-national Electricity access rate
• State of the electrical grid (generation, transmission, distribution)
• National grid expansion plans
• National renewable energy adoption rate
• National and sub-national renewable energy plans
• Technical challenges

The presentations on statistics covered the following aspects:

• The role of the national statistics institution/agency in energy and renewable energy statistics
• Available data related to solar energy and its sources
• Limitations of the available data
• Human expertise, skills, and available tools related to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Available hardware and software infrastructure
• Technical and institutional challenges
• National plans and recommendations

For more information and details, please consult the presentations posted on this page.

Participants from various Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) discussed the multitude of factors that are considered and studied before deciding on whether it is more feasible, efficient, and timely to either extend the electricity grid to unserved areas or build a renewable-energy-based mini-grid. All LDC representatives confirmed that advanced capacity-building is needed to improve the related decision-making processes adopted.

Participants from conflict-affected countries reported on the severe damage caused to electricity infrastructure, with major power plants partially or fully offline and reliance on diesel-based electricity generation. They noted that while solar PV installations have expanded significantly as a result, they still suffer from lack of monitoring, coordination, and sustainable maintenance, leading to failures, especially in rural areas. What exacerbates the situation is the weak data collection and communication among stakeholders (donors, contractors, ministries) which further hinders planning and investment.

Participants exchanged national experiences on regulatory reforms and incentives to attract foreign investments in renewable energy, supported by updated laws, regulations, and programs. They noted that while opportunities exist for large-scale and decentralized projects, gaps remain in further updating regulations to align with subsidy reductions and price liberalization, requiring further legislative adjustments to support the new enabling environment.

Participants also discussed national solar PV programs that support low-voltage solar PV systems through a mix of self-funding, subsidies, and loans repaid via electricity bills, with partnerships between utilities and commercial banks. The innovative aspect of these programs is that the funding mechanisms and the levels of subsidy vary by consumption level where higher consumers access standard loans, mid-level consumers benefit from longer repayment periods and higher subsidies, while the smallest consumers receive systems free of charge, financed by a specialized energy transition fund sourced from taxes on energy-intensive activities.

This session began with a presentation by ESCWA on its survey on improved mapping and monitoring of solar energy access in the Arab Region. Preliminary findings reveal key challenges and opportunities in leveraging geospatial tools for solar energy planning. The survey highlights widespread issues such as limited public sector capacity in GIS or energy data management, gaps in policymaking or planning expertise, poor inter-agency coordination, lack of standardized data collection, budget constraints, limited GIS skills, and insufficient access to high-resolution imagery, among others. Despite these barriers, there is strong demand for support in GIS training, increased collaboration and joint initiatives between agencies, satellite mapping, live dashboards, with many institutions expressing readiness to adopt geospatial tools if provided with the necessary resources and capacity-building.

Afterwards, a breakout session, focusing on the assessment of national GIS and statistical technical capacities, split the participants into three working groups facilitated by ESCWA through guiding questions and digital mind maps. Group 1 focused on GIS technical capacities, Group 2 focused on statistical capacities, and Group 3 encompassed online participants and focused on GIS technical capacities.

The key findings of the mind maps developed by Group 1 and Group 3 on national GIS capacities in the energy sector included:

Existing strengths:

• Several countries (Bahrain, Jordan, Somalia, State of Palestine) have GIS professionals and use platforms like QGIS and ArcGIS.
• Some mapping of PV systems and visualization tools already exist.
• Remote sensing agencies and water establishments use GIS for water mapping.
• Bahrain has a unified electronic platform across government entities.

Challenges and gaps:

• Limited specialized GIS training for energy applications.
• Hardware/software upgrades needed for advanced GIS and AI tools and solutions.
• Weak coordination among institutions and lack of uniform standards and accurate solar maps.
• Absence of GIS departments in some ministries.
• Difficulty mapping off-grid projects and accessing project data.

Opportunities:

• Establish specialized GIS teams and departments.
• Develop common guidelines, standards, and unified indicators across the Arab region.
• Create regional platforms for data sharing and automatic integration of mapping in licensing processes.
• Capacity building in GIS, GeoAI, and machine learning.
• Leverage existing water GIS data for renewable energy planning.
• IT equipment specifications for GIS mapping were provided to guide procurement.

The key findings of the mind maps developed by Group 2 on statistical capacities for energy data collection and analysis included:

Existing strengths:

• Some countries have energy balance frameworks and regulatory authorities.
• Good knowledge of international recommendations and access to computer tools.
• Geographic and demographic data available for rural areas.
• Common language among stakeholders and memorandums of understanding for data exchange.
• Focus on meeting international commitments and reporting requirements.

Challenges/gaps:

• Lack of reliable and updated data sources and data governance.
• Manual and indirect data collection methods and difficulty in obtaining off-grid solar PV data.
• Insufficient specialized training and human capital and few energy-specialized researchers involved in survey design.
• Poor coordination among ministries, institutions, and electricity companies.
• Absence of unified protocols for communication and reporting.
• Limited awareness among citizens and employees about renewable energy benefits.

Opportunities:

• Strengthen coordination and establish unified protocols.
• Develop observatories and legislative frameworks for renewable energy data.
• Use technology and communications advancements for data collection.
• Prepare models for monitoring and verification through ground surveys.
• Invest in human capital and specialized capacity-building programs for energy statistics.
• Integrate internships and partnerships with regional and international entities for capacity building.

A group session, focusing on the identification of policy gaps and the exploration of opportunities to strengthen cross-sectorial coordination, was facilitated by ESCWA through guiding questions and digital mind maps.

The key findings of the mind map developed included:

Existing strengths:

• Some coordination mechanisms and planning tools already exist.
• Unified systems and dashboards under development for decision-making.
• Legislative reforms enabling private sector investment in renewable energy.
• Opportunities to integrate renewable energy in key sectors (e.g., mining, water heating).
• Growing interest in holistic and realistic energy visions.

Challenges/gaps:

• Lack of accurate and reliable data for planning resulting in policies often being ambition-driven rather than data-driven.
• Overlapping responsibilities and weak coordination among institutions.
• Vertical and siloed planning with limited cross-sectoral integration.
• Absence of operational frameworks to translate targets into actionable projects (roadmaps, budgets, procurement).
• Low awareness among non-technical stakeholders and economic barriers to renewable energy adoption.
• Inconsistent policy execution and governance gaps.

Opportunities:

• Promote data-driven planning as a core principle.
• Develop inclusive and participatory approaches linking policymakers and technical teams.
• Establish laws and regulations to enforce sustainability measures.
• Create unified protocols and operational frameworks with clear implementation steps.
• Build capacity for both technical staff and decision-makers, including awareness programs.
• Encourage private sector participation and cross-sectoral energy planning.