The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council ‘GCC’, is a regional, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Led by the efforts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait, traditional energy countries of the GCC are embracing renewables faster than ever before.

The root causes behind such transformation go to the higher consumption of electricity per capita in the GCC (compared to other regions in the world), an increase in GHG emissions due to the increase of CO2 emissions (around 40% of energy-related CO2 are due to the burning of fossil fuels for electricity generation) hence increasing global warming, and forgone revenues from subsidizing 40% of the electricity generation cost that cannot be ignored.

The story will detail the strategy followed by EU countries that increase renewable installations and thus benefit from covering their domestic consumption of energy. Such viability of this strategy was the reduction in CO2 emissions by 8% in the last year.

Despite that WDIData indicators don’t give us an updated current installation of the renewables in the GCC but it is evident that each of the GCC countries expedited their strategies; for instance, Kuwait installed 70MW as a mix of Solar, Wind, and CSP. KSA and UAE contribute to the highest portion of Renewable installations: KSA installed 1 GW and 15GW under construction (Solar + Wind) while UAE installed 3.5GW (Solar) with 2 GW under construction.

Due to the implementation of Renewables, GCC countries will benefit from the following:

1. Renewables are the most practical and readily available climate solution due to the reduction in CO2 and GHG emissions.
2. Renewable energy is the most competitive form of power generation in the region due to the competitive prices breaking the world record by 1.7 cents per kWhr.
3. Sustainable economies by producing more jobs and boosting healthier economies.
4. Renewables save water: Water scarcity is an acute challenge in the region, with four of the six GCC countries ranking within the top 10 most water challenged on earth according to the World Resources Institute.   And with of the fastest-growing populations in the world, the region’s demand for water is expected to increase fivefold by 2050. IF the GCC countries were to realize their renewable energy targets, this would lead to an estimated overall reduction of 17% and 12% in water withdrawal and consumption, respectively, in the power sectors of the region. Renewables are currently part of any desalination project to bring down the SPC (specific power consumption) by 2.7kWhr/cubic meter due to the production of part of the power consumption through renewables.

Realizing the importance of implementing renewables, GCC governments set plans to increase renewables contribution to power production such as the Kuwait 2030 plant to generate 15% of the power needs through renewables, 2035 vision in KSA aims to generate 30% of the power demands through renewables.