Long-Term Electricity Scenarios for the MENA Region: Assessing the Preferences of Local Stakeholders Using Multi-Criteria Analyses

Ole Zelt, Christine Krüger, Marina Blohm, Sönke Bohm and Shahrazad Far
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Ole Zelt: Division Future Energy and Industry Systems, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany
Christine Krüger: Division Future Energy and Industry Systems, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany
Marina Blohm: Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, Europa-Universität Flensburg, 24937 Flensburg, Germany
Sönke Bohm: Institute of Geosciences, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Shahrazad Far: Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 16, 1-26

Abstract: In recent years, most countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), including Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, have rolled out national policies with the goal of decarbonising their economies. Energy policy goals in these countries have been characterised by expanding the deployment of renewable energy technologies in the electricity mix in the medium term (i.e., until 2030). This tacitly signals a transformation of socio-technical systems by 2030 and beyond. Nevertheless, how these policy objectives actually translate into future scenarios that can also take into account a long-term perspective up to 2050 and correspond to local preferences remains largely understudied. This paper aims to fill this gap by identifying the most widely preferred long-term electricity scenarios for Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. During a series of two-day workshops (one in each country), the research team, along with local stakeholders, adopted a participatory approach to develop multiple 2050 electricity scenarios, which enabled electricity pathways to be modelled using Renewable Energy Pathway Simulation System GIS (renpassG!S). We subsequently used the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) within a Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) to capture local preferences. The empirical findings show that local stakeholders in all three countries preferred electricity scenarios mainly or even exclusively based on renewables. The findings demonstrate a clear preference for renewable energies and show that useful insights can be generated using participatory approaches to energy planning.

Keywords: MENA; electricity scenarios; MCA; multi-criteria; stakeholder participation; sustainability; Tunisia; Morocco; Jordan; energy modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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