LAUSR

Abstract Middle East and North Africa region's abundant solar and wind resources provide a valuable opportunity to diversify energy production and offer a high potential for renewable energies. Thus, the solar water heating systems offer a key element in the deployment of renewable energy throughout the region. To this end, a model was developed and validated to evaluate the performance of these systems with different collectors. Then, an exhaustive energetic, exergetic, environmental and economic analysis of all the region's countries was carried out on the basis of the required meteorological data. Regarding the results for the entire region, the maximum solar fraction values attain 60 % and 83 % for the flat plate and evacuated tube systems, respectively. Under current economic assumptions, propane water heating is cheaper on a life cycle cost basis than electric and diesel heating throughout North Africa. Also, the use of auxiliary electric generators is suitable for all countries in the Middle East region except for Manama-Jordan, Abu Dhabi-UAE and Ankara-Turkey.