nuclear-news

Middle East nations to go for solar energy in a big way

Gulf states seek solar energy,  Gulf news, 14 June, Dubai: After decades of relying on fossil fuels to build their cities in the desert, some oil and gas rich nations of the Gulf are now turning skywards to the sun to meet future energy demands.
Ambitious multi-billion-dollar projects to harness the power of the region’s year-round blazing sun have already been announced by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
Global energy summits are being held in the region’s desert capitals
while whole communities, research institutes and businesses devoted to
the production, promotion and application of renewable energy are
being built.
Perhaps most significantly, the region’s nations are speaking of
sustainable development and clean energy as a key to ensuring future
growth. Focusing on renewable energy also makes “economic sense” for
the Gulf states, said Adnan Ameen, director general of the Abu
Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).
With local energy demands rapidly increasing, “it’s much more
expensive for them to subsidise their oil consumption than it is to
invest in renewable energy,” he said…….
The renewable energy pride of the UAE is the Masdar City project,
designed to have the lowest possible carbon footprint with futuristic
electric cars, street lights and air-conditioning all powered by a
10-megawatt on-site solar power plant….. Masdar is also about to
complete one of the world’s largest concentrated solar power plants in
the desert south of Abu Dhabi. Shams 1, a joint venture with Spain’s
Abengoa Solar and French Total is set to be complete by the end of
2012.
It will extend over a 2.5-square-kilometre area, have a capacity of
100 megawatts and according to Lamki, prevent approximately 175,000
tonnes of carboinemissions each year, the equivalent to “taking 15,000
cars off the road or planting 1.5 million trees.”…..
http://gulfnews.com/business/features/gulf-states-seek-solar-energy-1.1035477

June 14, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | MIDDLE EAST, renewable