The Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC, Member States plan to pump up to USD100 billion into renewable energy projects over the coming two decades.

Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, quoted Dr. Samira Ahmad Omar, Director-General of Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, KISR, as saying that Such robust funding aims to meet the growing energy consumption in the GCC states, estimated at three percent a year.

In a speech to the opening ceremony of the 6th Middle East and North Africa Renewable Energy Conference, MENAREC-6, Dr. Omar attributed the increasing demand for energy to economic transformations, including the tendency towards establishing industrial and service bases, and the growth of population.

"The environmental challenges relating to pollution and global warming left us with no choice other than relying heavily on clean and renewable energy, which is the focus of energy research circles worldwide," she stressed.

She added, "The GCC states, as well as other countries in the Middle East and Africa, have promising opportunities in the field of exploitation of the solar energy given the fact that they enjoy equatorial climate and sun shining rates of 1, 400 to 1,800 hours a year."

"The State of Kuwait has been earliest countries that sought to tap into the renewable energy. In 1978 KISR designed and operated a pilot solar energy station with a generating capacity of 100 kilowatts," Dr. Omar said, noting that the project was backed by Germany.

KISR pursued researches into renewables and their utilisation in seawater desalination and electricity generation. A few years ago, KISR launched Al-Saqaya renewable energy complex, which covers an area of 100 sq.km., with a compound capacity of 200,000 megawatts, she said, adding that the project will go operational by the end of 2016.

Source:WAM