KUWAIT CITY, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait is committed to renewable energy technologies, Kuwaiti Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water Bakheet Al-Rashidi said Sunday.
He made the remarks at the Fourth Arab Forum for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Kuwait under the theme of "Sustainable Energy: Investment -- Employment -- Technology."
Using such technologies in Kuwait could save up to 750 million U.S. dollars of cost until 2030, he said, noting that Kuwait will make efforts to assist Arab countries to use their own resources.
Despite the abundant renewable energy sources in Arab states, the countries started late in investing in renewable energy compared to other countries around the world with no resources, he noted.
It is necessary to take advantage of renewable sources at the time in light of the ongoing decrease in production and technology development costs, he added.
He also stressed Kuwait's efforts in generating electric power from renewable energy, so as to make the country's renewable energy production reach 15 percent of the total electric production by 2030.
Kuwait relied on oil resources to fuel its rapid economic development in the 20th century. The Gulf country is now interested in technologies that generate power from its deserts.
The deserts in Kuwait contain abundant solar and wind energies. Its solar potential, as measured in global horizontal irradiance, amounts to 1,900 kilowatt-hour per square meter per year, according to International Renewable Energy Agency data.
