UAE to go solar?

[metroreporter]

it's about time, darn the oil lobby.

[Durbsboi]

how fast is the water flow in the Sea? I doubt the current is that strong, but since your'll have linked projects such as the marina to the ocean one can install a hydro plant there, with tubines at the entrance & exits of the marina.

[Dubai_Steve]

The world's first zero-carbon emission tower could be built in Dubai, Construction Week has learned.

Atkins Middle East is currently working on the design of the building, which will be located in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

Lee Morris, senior architect, Atkins Middle East, said that the tower is in the early stages of design.

"We are working on a potential project for DIFC and are looking at it having zero-carbon emission. The tower would produce its own power - enough to counter the energy use of the building. Now that would be a huge goal."

He added: "It is conceptual, but it has been given a piece of land, and it has been approved by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum [vice-president and prime minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai]."

In order to achieve its ultimate design, Morris said that Atkins will focus on the tower's orientation, the increased thermal insulation of the building, along with high-volume photovoltaic cells.

The company is also looking into integrating wind turbines on the building.

"It will be expensive - it has to be because the technology we are going to be using is probably a couple of years away from the mainstream," said Morris.

According to Morris, the move to build an iconic building that is sustainable reflects a growing change in Dubai.

"Once you get this groundswell it is going to be awesome and will be hard to resist. The Dubai government has signed the Kyoto protocol, so it has made a commitment to engage on this. And as the country and development matures, particularly as it is a young society, and it is this same society that will bring in views on this kind of thing, I think the next few years will see a sea change."

Atkins' sustainable building projects in the region include the Bahrain World Trade Centre, which uses wind turbines to generate up to 15% of the building's energy, and the Trump Tower on Palm Jumeirah, which has vertically mounted solar panels to generate energy as well as pipes running through the external skin of the building, which heat water.

Other buildings in the emirate that have made strides towards going ‘green' include Wafi City's district cooling plant, which in January achieved the Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) status, the first accreditation of its kind in the Middle East.

[Dubai_Steve]

European countries are mulling over plans to extract solar power from the Sahara desert as a source of renewable energy, leaving experts to ask why solar energy is not exploited in the Gulf, especially in power desalination plants.

The UAE has cheap land, cheap labour and construction incentives making it an ideal market for solar energy. There is more radiation here than in the Sahara desert making the Empty Quarter or surrounding desert better suited to solar energy, said Galal Osman, Vice-President of the World Wind Energy Association

"One square kilometre of solar power in the Sahara is equivalent to providing 1.5 million US dollars per year of energy, so if you have 100 square kilometres in the Sahara desert, which is 8 million square kilometres, you are creating a lot of renewable energy," said Osman.

State of the art technology now allows for such energy to be transported 4000 or 5000 kilometres economically, said Osman.

"Governments here need to be convinced that this is in their best interest. There is a pioneering mindset here so I believe it will happen," he said.

Osman added that developing the solar energy market in the UAE would also provide a lot of jobs. "In Egypt where I come from we have the same problem, a lot of graduates without employment.

But if you take the need for water here and the need to reduce pollution, the vast desert and the high number of unemployed graduates, solar energy can provide a lot of jobs and be used to power desalination plants," he said.

"We need to use our sun and develop the solar market and create jobs. Countries like Germany or Japan are doing it. This region is not thinking eco-friendly. Renewable energy can have a sociological input to the region," he added.

[Dubai_Steve]

Environmentalists claim the Emirates is one of the biggest energy consumers and carbon dioxide emitters per capita on the planet. The World Wildlife Fund has asked the country to move toward renewable energy, especially solar power viable in one of the world's sunniest climates.

[AltinD]

These are the two towers for DIFC that ATKINS was showcasing during Cityscape:



The first is called Lighthouse and it seams to be for the plot where Hexagon was suposed to be, while the second one seams to be for the central spot.

While both facades can accomodate the cells, but only the second one can accomodate the wind turbines.

[mahdial_x5]

WTF?! THE SECOND ONE LOOKS LIKE SHITTT!!! IM SORRY IT IS SOOO UGLY!!!

the first one, however, is Elegant!

[malec]

Relax, the thing is still under design so will change, also there are a whole series of proposals for that and this is only one of them. Here's another:

[Fighter786]

Wth? Are they are trying to emulate eiffel tower?

Gulf countries burn oil for electricity right

[Saudi guy]

what R&D mean?

[Dubai_Steve]

Originally Posted by Fighter786

Gulf countries burn oil for electricity right

That is one reason why the Emirates is one of the biggest energy consumers and carbon dioxide emitters per capita on the planet.

It never seems to stop raining in Dubai maybe now because of the climate change. Tourists may go somewhere drier instead.

[megatower]

Originally Posted by malec

Relax, the thing is still under design so will change, also there are a whole series of proposals for that and this is only one of them. Here's another:

i think this is the best 1

[malec]

Originally Posted by Saudi guy

what R&D mean?

Research and development

[Saudi guy]

nice shortcut thanks malec.

[AD77]

Abu Dhabi to build Gulf's first solar power plant

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The government of Abu Dhabi will build a $350 million solar power plant, the first of its kind in the world's biggest oil exporting region, an investor in the project said on Sunday.

The 500 megawatt plant, expected to begin operations in 2009, is part of Abu Dhabi's drive to cut dependence on hydrocarbon power generation, said Sultan al-Jaber, chief executive of state-owned Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co.

Future Energy, a subsidiary of government-owned Mubadala Development Co, and the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority will fund the plant with other investors.

Abu Dhabi holds more than 90 percent of the oil reserves of the United Arab Emirates, a seven member, petroleum-exporting federation.

The emirate eventually hopes to provide solar power to 10,000 homes and is setting up a special economic zone for the alternative energy industry, Jaber said.

"We...do not want to be 100 percent dependent on (hydrocarbon power), Jaber said.

"We have an economic development program dedicated to establishing an entirely new economic sector focused on alternative energy and sustainable technologies," he said.

The plant will be first in the Gulf, home to oil and gas producers who supply a fifth of the world's energy needs, he said.

[Dubai_Steve]

Excellent news - now Dubai just needs to do better, especially since it does not have much oil left.

[sma101]

Hi

A time will come solar energy will be a business it is matter of time....... Hope by that time matter does not worst..........

[BlackFlower]

Hi there. Since i found no realy matching post i try these one. I have a
question about Dubai. If Dubai realy get so much people to dubai as they
build towers where goes all the garbage, drinking water & effluent? For a City
with so much ppl like they plan there could be i found no project / Artworks
for sewage treatment plants or garbage incineration or so. Where go all the
garbage / effluent? I found a project called "Dubai Recycling Park" maybe
this is the answer descent Problem? But also just 1 Project seems for me to
small to fix it!? Since im in this Industry im mostly interested in intended
sewage treatment plants and / or garbage incineration! Where goes all the
unclean Water from (in near future hopefully if the Sheiks realy think all grows
up like in the CG Videos) Millions of Ppl??? Where is the BIG clarification plant?

[Alle]

"millions of people" is really 2.5 million, which is the goal for 2015 if i remember correcly, garbageservices and such, il pass that to someone else, presumably someone who lives there.

I believe they havve a watertreatment just like any western city, for example.

[cyborg81]

Abu Dhabi: Turning to the sun in the land of oil
By Hassan M. Fattah

Thursday, March 15, 2007
ABU DHABI: Just on the outskirts of this Gulf city, past a refinery and a water desalination plant, the foundations are being poured for an ambitious project intended to take this big oil producer into the next energy boom.

Oil, however, will have nothing to do with it.

The sun will.

Abu Dhabi, one of the world's largest oil producers, is seeking to become a center for the development and the implementation of clean energy technology. Last year, the emirate, which is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, began the Masdar Initiative, a far-reaching program that seeks to rope in various companies, government ministries and universities around the world to help develop and commercialize renewable energy technologies backed by Abu Dhabi's money.

Despite initial skepticism and a few snickers, Abu Dhabi has sought to prove it is serious about clean energy. Masdar has already started a $250 million "clean technology fund" and begun construction of a special economic zone for the advanced- energy industry.

Last month, it announced plans to build a 100-megawatt solar plant in the area, and shortly after that it announced the formation of a graduate teaching and research institute in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The progress has many advocates of clean energy buzzing. "For a player in that world to recognize that there's this other component to the energy business is itself a recognition that the world is changing," said Marc Stuart, director of New Business Development at EcoSecurities, a research firm. "It is a very significant move because the Middle East is one of the areas where renewable energy has never made any strides."

From its gleaming high-rise towers to its billion-dollar marble-encrusted Emirates Palace Hotel, this city prides itself on being an example of what oil money, put to good use, can do.

Oil helped turn Abu Dhabi from a desert fishing village into a major Arab capital with political clout. It helped build a citizens' trust fund that is estimated to be worth as much as $300 billion and today brings the emirate almost twice as much income as its oil sales do.

Now, Abu Dhabi means to show that petrodollars can spark and develop innovation in the clean energy business, too.

Ultimately, Abu Dhabi's leaders envision the emirate as the Bangalore, India, of clean energy, both producing research and selling the technology.

In a decade, Abu Dhabi should have expertise in solar energy, photovoltaics, energy storage, carbon sequestration and hydrogen fuel.

Most important, they say, it hopes to prepare itself for a world that will not be as reliant on fossil fuels as it is today.

"We realize that the world energy markets are diversifying, so we need to diversify, too," said Sultan al-Jaber, the chief executive of Masdar. "We see the growth of renewable energy as an opportunity, not as a problem."

The project is not so much sizable as it is symbolic. The emirate, with about 10 percent of the world's oil reserves, could have a lot to lose from the adoption of clean energy in place of oil. Yet its effort is the most serious acknowledgment by a major oil producer that the energy market is changing.

"They've seen the writing on the wall: Where will all these places be post-oil?" said Virginia Sonntag-O'Brien, managing director of BASE, a center in Basel, Switzerland, that facilitates investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. "It's their message that they are an oil-producing nation taking the energy and climate issue seriously, and developing their own economy."

Last month, Masdar announced plans to build a $350 million solar power plant, the first plant of its kind in the Gulf region, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Power and Water Authority. The plant will have a capacity of 100 megawatts — enough to power as many as 10,000 homes — and could be either a stand-alone plant or part of a water desalination project.

Shortly after, Masdar announced an even more ambitious plan to develop a graduate-level research center in combination with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that will be focused on renewable-energy technologies.

Scientists who join the program will be able to attend MIT courses and will be assisted in developing research and curricula at Abu Dhabi.

MIT administrators liken the effort to one in Bangalore in the 1960s that helped create the high-technology industry there.

"This is the first oil-producing state that has accepted and agreed with the concept that oil may not be the only source of energy in the future," said Fred Moavenzadeh, director of the MIT technology development program. "That is a significant realization."

The United Arab Emirates has been singled out as one of the highest emitters per capita of carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases. The UAE has especially high energy demand for air conditioning, cooled swimming pools and even an indoor ski slope in one of its malls. Officials say the project is one way to reduce demand for fossil fuels internally.

Analysts warn that the big investments have yet to occur but note that the progress has underscored the seriousness of the effort.

"In some ways this is as much of a sea change as when private equity groups took on the utilities and closed down carbon-intensive plants," Stuart, of EcoSecurities, said.

He was speaking of the leveraged buyout last month of TXU, the largest power producer in Texas, in which the acquirers agreed to roll back plans to build new coal-fired plants.

"For many of us in the field that was a seminal moment," he said. "The movement of a Middle East oil and gas kingdom into this field — and the level of investment it has put into it — may in the future be seen as a seminal moment, too."