Gulf Arab oil producers are intensifying plans to expand their reliance on renewable energy sources to meet a rapid growth in domestic consumption and slash local oil consumption to boost exports, according to experts.
The six members—UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman— plan to pump more than $130 billion into nuclear, solar and wind power projects in the next five years to face a steady rise in domestic demand due to their expanding economies and populations.
Figures by the Dubai-based Middle East Electricity Company showed most of the projects are based in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the two largest Arab economies.
The report showed the GCC countries currently produce around 157 GW of electricity, nearly 43% of the Middle East’s total power output and that they need to invest nearly $81 billion to add around 62GW to the existing power capacity in addition to nearly $50 billion for power transfer and distribution.
Official data showed Saudi Arabia alone is expected to invest nearly $59 billion in the next five years while the UAE would spend around $35 billion and Kuwait about $14 billion.
A report by the Germany-based International Solar Energy Society (ISES) showed GCC states could pump in excess of $200 billion into solar and other renewable energy projects over the next 10 years to ensure they meet future needs.
The report showed that solar power projects in the Gulf have the lowest costs in the world given its desert nature and sunny skies.
Other reports showed that by 2050, the UAE would meet 75% of its power needs from renewable energy sources while this sector is projected to contribute 40-50% to energy mix in Saudi Arabia by the end of its long term development strategy known as Vision 2030.
Experts believe GCC nations, which control 45 per cent of the world’s recoverable oil deposits and a third of the global gas wealth, have the potential to meet their energy need from three main sources – nuclear, sun and wind.
Being a desert terrain, the Gulf has an edge over other areas in having longer periods of sunshine, while the wind velocity in the region is also ideal to produce energy from windmills, according to ISES.
“The global warming issue and the expected depletion of the conventional energy source such as oil and gas is pushing the GCC countries to search for subsidiary energy sources….the per capita CO2 in GCC countries is the highest in the world, it is estimated in Qatar at 60 tonne/person annually,” ISES said in a recent study.
It said GCC countries have enough solar and wind potential to generate electricity that could meet all their needs without using the oil and gas wealth.
“If the GCC countries allocate 0.5 per cent of their 2.5 million sq km area for the generation of electricity from solar energy and assuming their equipment have a conversion rate of 20 per cent, they can generate enough energy for the year,” it said.
The study noted that the GCC countries are located in an arid zone belt, with about 3,400 hours of sunshine a year, adding that there is little natural water and 100 times more high evaporation rate than other areas, making the region the most suited to use solar energy.
