As the world scrambles to develop renewable energy resources (RES), the Gulf countries that benefit from high prices on fossil fuels are making sure that they do not get left behind. According to ‘REN 21: Renewables Global Status Report 2007,' though the share of fossil fuels in the global final energy consumption in 2006 stood at 79 percent, the fact that the share of RES has climbed to 18 percent is a clear indication of trends. A report by the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center (GRC), “Alternative Energy Trends and Implications for Gulf Cooperation Council Countries,” offers this analysis: “High costs of fossil fuels alongside technological breakthroughs and decreasing costs with growing economies of scale will play out well for RES, which have developed into an industry to reckon with and are also underpinned by growing government support and concerns about global warming.” Experts say that the overall technical potential for renewable energy is huge and several times the current total energy demand. According to the International Energy Agency, global electricity consumption in 2050 could be between 113 and 167 Exajoules (EJ). The technical electricity production potential of RE technologies, excluding biomass, is almost 2,500 EJ per year. “Sustainable energy investment was $70.9 billion dolars in 2006, an increase of 43 percent over 2005. The sectors with the highest levels of investment are wind, solar and biofuels, which reflects technology maturity, policy incentives and investor appetite,” Eckart Woertz, programme manager at the GRC, told IPS. Investments in developing countries still play a minor role in comparison, but increasing quickly and are already considerable in China, India and Brazil. Currently India 4,300 of Mw a year, followed by China with 765 Mw. In line with the global trend, interest in RES is growing among Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), resulting in huge investments and several notable projects.
