Renewable energies in the Middle East and North African Region: can private-public partnerships address existing barriers and risks?

Despite ambitious energy policy targets and available resource potentials deployment of renewable energies in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region is mainly supported by public funding. Volumes of foreign direct investment (FDI) going into the renewable energy projects in the region are minimal. Evidence suggests that existing risks for investment and how these risks are perceived b investors is keeping back private investment or makes it more costly. This paper discusses which type of risks are affecting renewable energy projects and which ones of them could be addressed by the private public partnership (PPP) models. We find out that even though PPPs are suitable to address such types of risks as financial and project management, they might be less successful in addressing governance or public opposition risks