Arabal meet moots use of renewable energy to save cost

MUSCAT: The Arab Aluminium conference 2017 concluded with recommendations emphasising on use of renewable energy and waste management.

Speakers at the conference highlighted the potential that renewable energy and waste management presents in terms of saving energy, controlling operational costs and reducing carbon emissions.

“In the future, smelters will be where we have renewable energy. Economics are going to decide the power landscapes,” Max Wiestner from ABB Switzerland said during a panel discussion on renewable energy and the future of the aluminium industry.

“If we want to maintain under two degrees change, we need to phase out fossil fuels gradually,” stated Sgouris Sgouridis, Associate Professor at Masdar Institute, part of Khalifa University.

“The renewable energy potential is very high in Oman and the GCC, and we must move forward to realise this potential even for industrial processes like producing aluminium.”

Renewable energy, despite being cost competitive with conventional sources such as gas powered energy, is often considered disadvantageous due to intermittency. Sgouridis believes hybrid systems can be developed for the present before moving on to the next stages.

“Storage can be done through thermal methods here too. We need to look at hybrids between fossil fuels and renewables to start off with.

“After that, we must look at the complete renewable energy system,” he remarked.