womanthismonth.com | JULY 2026 OPINION 94 The Regional Energy Crisis: Balancing the Gulf’s Growth with Green Realities Noora Jaber Muhanna Al Rashed writes about how Gulf states can balance rising energy demand, climate commitments and resilience through smarter, more efficient power systems. For many decades, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) operated according to a stable economic model: exporting hydrocarbons while using domestic surpluses to supply heavily subsidised national electricity grids. However, new structural shifts and increasing global tensions have caused major changes to that model and introduced the idea of an energy crisis in the region. There are two components to this crisis. First, global disruptions to maritime corridors and supply chain vulnerabilities have highlighted the fragility of traditional energy supply chains. Second, the rapid pace of urbanisation, population growth and the large energy demands of new AI data centres mean that domestic electricity demand is outstripping both national fiscal budgets and the ambitious climate commitments each GCC state has made. The primary challenge facing GCC states is therefore not simply a natural scarcity of resources, but the pressing need for structural resilience and domestic resource efficiency. An economic paradox, one that exists mainly among major oil and gas-producing nations, has contributed to the current bottleneck in oil and gas supply. Every barrel of crude oil or cubic foot of natural gas used domestically, whether to cool high-rise buildings, generate electricity for heavy industry or support other parts of the economy, is energy that cannot be exported to generate revenue for government budgets. At the same time, global energy trade is changing. Many major energy-consuming countries, including those in Europe and Asia, have introduced stricter carbon emissions limits for energy consumption. To maintain their economic strength and commercial viability in the face of these changes, GCC member states have committed to decarbonising power generation using non-fossil fuel sources. To achieve this, the region will need to modify its traditional approach to resource extraction and adopt a mindset focused on modernising energy systems. The framework for this modernisation has already begun to take shape. GCC member countries are investing more than $3.5 billion in the GCC Interconnection Grid, which will allow member states to share power during different peak-use periods, accommodate the variability in demand created by new technologies and services and help avoid power outages in neighbouring countries. The View from Manama: Turning Constraints into Agility Bahrain’s path to a sustainable future will rely heavily on a strategy that takes both geography and economic reality into consideration. Replacing fossil-fuel energy sources with renewable alternatives presents several challenges. Unlike some of its neighbours, Bahrain does not have large tracts of desert land where vast photovoltaic solar fields can be built. As a result, the Kingdom must achieve its energy transition through urban innovation and agile structural change. Bahrain is already making significant progress towards that goal through the Electricity and Water Authority’s continued pursuit of key utility-scale projects. These include the groundbreaking of the 100MW Al Dur solar photovoltaics project and the recently
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