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The global conversation about the energy transition still tends to treat the Gulf as a latecomer trying to catch up with Denmark’s discipline, Germany’s social mobilization, or China’s industrial scale. 

That framing misses what actually wins the transition. It is the ability to deliver reliable clean power, at speed, in demanding conditions. In that race, the Gulf is closing the gap faster than many notice, and, in specific system niches, beginning to lead.

Denmark’s lesson is integration. The country stitched wind, district heat, and demand response into one organism, underpinned by trust in data and institutions.

Germany’s lesson is mobilization. The country’s energy transition proves the power of public mobilization, with millions of citizens investing in rooftop solar and community energy projects. But it also shows that without parallel expansion of transmission lines and firm clean capacity, mobilization alone leads to wasted power, higher costs, and political strain.

China’s lesson is scale and tempo, driven by building fast, learning fast, and iterating at industrial cadence, even if the system leans on coal to buffer volatility while storage scales.

The Gulf’s lesson, emerging in real time, is execution under heat, growth, and complexity. We operate at 45 C summers, humidity swings, and dust that punishes panels and filters. Demand is peaky and rising, driven by cooling, water, logistics, and world-class urban growth. Any clean system that works here is battle-tested for the century ahead.

Where does the Gulf enjoy a comparative advantage?

First, strategic speed. Clear land, bankable counterparties, and standardized procurement compress the distance from concept to commissioning.

Where others spend years permitting cycles and litigation, we move in quarters. Speed compounds learning; learning compounds cost and reliability gains. It is fashionable to say ‘we can’t boil the ocean,’ but we can boil the backlog.

Second is the fact that the Gulf is designing for firm clean power, not just cheap noon solar. That means stacking resources.

These include nuclear baseload where available, flexible gas that is progressively decarbonized, utility-scale batteries for intraday shifting, long-duration storage as it matures, and AI-driven demand shaping, to deliver the most expensive electricity of the day (the August evening peak) at the lowest possible carbon and cost.

The Gulf’s emerging edge is system design under stress, turning tough climate, fast growth, and demanding loads into a proving ground for firm clean power.

Rasso Jorg Bartenschlager

If the transition is judged by the 9 p.m. megawatt-hour in August, not the noon megawatt-hour in March, a different set of leaders emerges.

The Gulf’s strength lies in broad integration, treating desalination as a flexible load, district cooling as thermal storage, and ports as hubs for low-carbon fuels. This allows innovation beyond temperate systems.

Instead of measuring progress by renewable share alone, fairer metrics for fast-growing economies include clean energy added per capita, the cost of firm 24/7 clean power, system flexibility ratios, permitting and interconnection speed, and cross-border grid capacity, which are benchmarks that reveal the Gulf’s true trajectory.

The Gulf doesn’t need to replicate China’s entire supply chain, but should localize areas where climate, logistics, and service intensity provide an edge. This includes heat-tuned inverters, battery cooling, hybrid systems, and data-driven maintenance.

To unlock private capital, market signals must evolve. Pricing flexibility through time-of-use and capacity mechanisms, and opening granular system data so innovators can build optimization tools.

The key shift is to treat flexibility not as insurance, but as a product in its own right.

The transition is a technician’s project as much as an engineer’s. Battery specialists who understand degradation in heat; high-voltage jointers; marine and port electrification teams; AI operators who can translate model outputs into safe dispatch decisions.

Apprenticeships, regional credentialing, and recognition of prior learning can scale this workforce faster than traditional routes alone.

People often assume that community consultation is a brake on progress and centralized systems are the accelerator. The truth is subtler and legitimacy is a force multiplier.

If the Gulf continues to pair rapid execution with transparent targets, stable frameworks, and visible consumer benefits, more reliable power at the hottest hour, cleaner air in port cities, cheaper bills at night, the social license to keep building will only strengthen.

How do we compare, then, to Denmark, Germany, and China?

Denmark remains the master of integration in a small, cooperative system. Germany remains the laboratory of distributed ambition, wrestling honestly with the costs of speed. China remains the scale engine, bending global cost curves for everyone.

The Gulf’s emerging edge is system design under stress, turning tough climate, fast growth, and demanding loads into a proving ground for firm clean power.

If we succeed, we will export recipes of how to run desalination as a flexible asset, how to derate less in dust and heat, how to co-optimize cooling and solar, and how to ensure that the dirtiest hour of the day becomes the cleanest.

• Rasso Jorg Bartenschlager is general manager of Al Masaood Power Division