When fossil fuel runs out

Many people are now talking about the falling importance of fossil fuel in the age of renewables that is to come. How long it is going to last regarding the global dependence on fossil fuel is anybody's guess. Even Middle East oil producers have more or less seen the woods from the trees now.

UAE did not build Dubai as a tourist destination, in an almost desert environment, on the spur of the moment. It was a safety measure, possibly the only alternative available, knowing that the inevitable will happen when oil runs out. Oil is not a finite gift to the Arabs but is exhaustible. Then what?

Saudi Arabia is building its most prestigious NEOM mega project to transform its economy that had been dependent on oil. If oil is unlimited, the Saudis do not have to diversify. More than that, the Saudis are building a nuclear power plant in anticipation of demand for energy. Imagine a country said to be floating on oil having to build nuclear power plants for energy. But I believe the Saudis also saw the woods from the trees and are not putting all its eggs in one basket.

China will be the one country that will show the world that it is possible to live without relying totally on fossil fuel. Chinese renewable energy harvesting is still at its initiation stage and big projects in dam building, nuclear power station building, solar panel fields and wind power projects expansion carried out onshore, offshore and in desert areas are ongoing. China's demand for energy is almost insatiable for its factories. But China has already cut down its transportation system relying on fossil fuel to migrate totally to electrification. You can be sure that what China embarks on is no half-hearted measures taking decades to fulfil.

Having said that, which country is going to be at the forefront when global demand for renewable energy equipment goes ballistic? China will be there and China has the capacity to do that on scale that no one else can match. That is what overcapacity is for.


Anonymous