The World Resources Institute (WRI) has named the world’s top 20 most water-stressed countries which have the most solar energy potential.
The ranking draws on WRI’s new global data platform, Resource Watch, which brings together various open source datasets to map, measure and mitigate global environmental risk, including water risk. The list reflects countries that are water stressed and where solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind power technologies are most likely to be financially attractive.
Yemen, at the top of the list, has the highest average solar energy potential in terms of global horizontal irradiance (GHI), a proxy for the strength and concentration of star energy hitting a PV panel. It is also one of the world’s most water-stressed and least developed countries.
The full list is as follows:
- Yemen
- Eritrea
- Saudi Arabia
- Oman
- Libya
- Algeria
- Morocco
- United Arab Emirates
- Jordan
- Mexico
- Afghanistan
- Qatar
- Bahrain
- Peru
- Timor-Leste
- Iran
- Australia
- Kuwait
- Israel
- Lebanon