Kuwait should have looked at this issue 10-15 years ago. The measures taken today do not solve the current problem, they prevent it from worsening in the future. “
In a desire to promote the carbon model model in order to boost demand for its hydrocarbon exports, Kuwait was held away from the turn towards renewable energies. The institutional paralysis caused by years of conflict between the ruling family, represented by the government, and the populist fringes of the Kuwaitian company which express themselves in Parliament (Editor’s note: the latter was suspended by the emir in 2024) facilitated this inaction. But the country pays today the price of aging its power plants and the explosion of air conditioning demand to maintain homes at living temperatures despite record heat. Even though its sunshine, one of the best in the world in summer, is not used, Kuwait could face a shortage of 1.6 Gigawatt this summer, according to the American trade administration.
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In this context, Kuwait has resigned itself since 2024 to impose temporary electricity cuts during certain heat peaks to limit demand. “”Kuwait should have looked at this issue 10-15 years ago. The measures taken today do not solve the current problem, they prevent it from worsening in the future “Rahmat Poudineh analysis, director of electricity research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
Free illusion
At the origin of the electrical crisis that Kuwait is going through, there is also a unbridled demand resulting from decades of grant to redistribute the oil rent. The price paid by Kuwaitian households for electricity is indeed strongly subsidized and unchanged since 1966, at 0.006 euros per kilowatt hour. A tariff aberration that has lasted for six decades and only covers 5 % of the real cost of production, making any investment for the future, such as a solar park, a financial chasm.
The existing housing stock was built around the idea of ​​free energy. “
In addition, the free illusion of free people enjoyed the Kuwaitus has led to a distortion of demand, pushing the rate of household consumption to one of the highest levels in the world due to the lack of incitement to energy sobriety and to invest in more economical household appliances. “”The existing housing stock was built around the idea of ​​free energy. If these subsidies had been removed 50 years ago, the cities of Kuwait today would have a very different appearance “, Indicates Rahmat Poudineh. “”Some buildings, even if they are new, are equipped with air conditioners that consume a lot of electricity. This is because electricity does not cost us. I have the feeling that we do not have this culture of energy economy “, Confides Abdallah Al Sayegh, a Kuwaitian who lives in a house with indoor pool in Al Khiran, a city built on an artificial inner lagoon in the south of the country.
An upward demand
If a redesign of the subsidy regime is long overdue with regard to its political sensitivity, demand continues to grow. The International Energy Agency estimates that the electricity consumption of Kuwait should increase by 3.3 % per year between 2025 and 2027, in particular due to the crossing of the threshold of the five million inhabitants expected for this year according to the United Nations. This demographic expansion comes up against the realities of climate change which makes demand for air conditioning jump. Indeed, the average outside temperature in Kuwait during June, July and August increased by 1.9 ° C between the period 1931-1960 and 1991-2020 to reach 37.2 ° C according to the World Bank.
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Connected, Kuwait has partially resigned and announces the construction in four phases of the Dabdaba-Shagaya solar park on the border with Saudi Arabia to exploit its solar resource and generate 4.5 additional electricity gigawatts by 2030. In the meantime, the emirate continues to pay high prices for fossil fuel and energy consumption. Indeed, national gas production has not covered domestic needs since 2008 and the imports of this fossil fuel increased by almost 900 % between 2009 and 2022, according to the International Energy Agency. The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energies has not responded to an interview request. And if Kuwait opens up to solar energy after years of rejection, it remains attached to carboned electricity. Contracts should be signed soon for the construction of phase two and three of the North Al-Zour gas power plant.
