Background Story

The MENA region has witnessed a surge in solar energy adoption over the past decade, driven by falling technology costs, growing energy demand, and increasing climate commitments. While utility-scale projects dominate headlines, distributed solar — especially rooftop PV for commercial and industrial users — is quietly transforming energy markets. Key to this shift has been the rise of supportive regulatory frameworks, particularly net metering schemes, which have made self-generation financially viable.

 

Problems

Despite the momentum, several challenges have hindered broader adoption:
 

• Regulatory uncertainty: Sudden policy changes or unclear guidelines deter long-term investment

• Grid integration issues: Utilities worry about revenue loss and technical constraints, leading to caps or restrictions on net-metered systems

• Lack of scale: Without incentives or market aggregation, many small-scale systems remain commercially marginal

• Limited alternatives: In markets without net metering, options like wheeling or virtual PPAs are still nascent or nonexistent

Main Objectives

This insight explores how evolving policies in the MENA region — from classic net metering to innovative models like wheeling and peer-to-peer trading — are reshaping the distributed solar landscape. The goal is to help stakeholders understand:
 

• The current state of net metering across key MENA markets

• What new models are emerging to replace or supplement it

• How businesses can navigate these shifts to maximize benefits

Approach

We analyzed regulatory updates, policy papers, and real-world project data from several MENA countries to map out trends in distributed solar policy. Key focus countries include:
 

• UAE: Particularly Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where net metering is mature, and commercial models are diversifying

• Jordan: Among the first to introduce net metering, now exploring wheeling and aggregators

• Egypt: Gradual opening of distributed solar with net metering and upcoming feed-in mechanisms

• Morocco: A promising but still evolving regulatory environment for self-consumption and wheeling

We also reviewed how global best practices — including virtual PPAs and community solar — may influence future policy designs in the region.

 

Results

Dubai’s Shams Dubai initiative has demonstrated the viability of regulated rooftop solar programs, leading to thousands of connected buildings and growing installer ecosystems.

Jordan’s early net metering success has given way to more sophisticated models like wheeling, allowing off-site generation and consumption, particularly for large C&I users.

Policy momentum is shifting toward flexible, scalable models — including virtual net metering and peer-to-peer trading — though most are still in pilot or concept stages.

The trend is clear: net metering served as a gateway, but the future lies in market-based, digital-ready frameworks that enable greater user participation and grid flexibility.

Summary

When it comes down to the benefits, both options provide the same benefits to the clients, the only difference would be the actual presence of the system within the customer’s property. Perhaps the latter would have the additional benefit of promoting the client’s image by promoting their installed system to the customers stakeholders.