The Middle East: Renewable energy friendly?

Timon Singh

As one of the world's richest regions in terms of oil and gas deposits, you'd expect the Middle East to be reticent about embracing renewable energy technology. After all, countries like Saudi Arabia and emirates such as Abu Dhabi have built their economies on oil exports, however last week Infrastructure MENA reported that Kuwait, one of the most oil-rich nations on the planet, had been looking to invest in the alternative energy sector... and it appears they are not the only one.

We've long reported on ground-breaking developments in the UAE such as Abu Dhabi's zero-carbon Masdar City and the various emirates' efforts to embrace renewable energy solutions and clean technologies, despite several of them having oil reserves but there is still one area holding firm against the inevitable.

Saudi Arabia

Concentrating on oil

It is hardly surprising, after all apart from Russia, the Kingdom is the world's leading oil producer, so embracing renewable energy would almost be detrimental to Saudi Arabia's economy. However while Russia has said that dependency on its energy exports is 'humiliating' and have striven to diversify, Saudi Arabia have stood firm.

Riyadh have recently stated plans to spend US$170 billion over the next five years on energy and oil refining efforts confirming thoughts that they aren't treating renewable energy as a serious investment, despite green technologies doing well in terms of market shares.

Saudi Aramco, the country's state-owned oil company, has even been quoted as saying it is "unrealistic" for Saudi Arabia to invest heavily into alternative energy sources when its 'cash cow' is essentially its oil wealth.

While the Kingdom may have made half-hearted efforts to embrace renewable technology such as cursory investment in bio fuels and electric vehicles, it is still very much placing all its eggs in one basket.

Speaking to Oilprice.com, Eurasia Group energy analyst Will Pearson argued this could prove to be a mistake for Saudi Arabia. Acknowledging that people are going to be dependant on the oil industry for transport for a while, Pearson said that Saudi Arabia was wasting its potential to become a major solar player saying the kingdom had not made "too much concrete progress so far."

In fact, he went so far as to say that without a "huge, revolution[ary], game-changing technology," an abrupt shift in Saudi Arabia's "fuel mix" is doubtful.

Waste water investment

It's not all doom and gloom though. While it may be relying on its oil exports, Saudi Arabia has recognised the importance on waste water regulation. As such, Saudi Arabia is planning on investing US$53 billion into a variety of water projects over the next 15 years.

70 percent of this investment will be for sewage and waste water treatment projects in the Kingdom as with most countries in the region, a large amount of water is wasted in ineffective sewage systems. Saudi Arabia aims to change that.

The UAE too recently made changes to how it treats its water supplies, announcing plans to implement the region's first water conservation law.

With plans like these as well as other countries embracing renewable technology, such as Morocco and Egypt's plans for a solar farm, the UAE's metro system, plans for vertical farms and investing in nuclear energy, green energy could soon come to the Middle East, but until Saudi Arabia takes the plunge as well, the region's largest oil producer will still dictate the Middle East's energy policy.

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