The Gulf's sunshine states
The countries of the Arab Gulf aren't just blessed with oil and gas. Sunshine and wind are abundant too. A shift to capture their energy is underway
Oil has been the most important fuel of economic development within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, the vast, deserty piece of land that stretches across the Arabian Peninsula towards the Arabian Gulf. When it was first struck in Bahrain in 1931, few could have imagined the enormous change of fortune oil would bring to the region. It has made countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar rich; and their governments derive between 65% and 85% of their budgets from the export of fossil fuels. Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain are today among the world's wealthiest nations on a per capita basis. As important as oil has been, the region's energy market is now looking beyond
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