UAE’s flight to a champion of renewable energy
abu dhabi — The UAE might not seem like an obvious spot to begin and end a globe-spanning flight promoting renewable energy.
It is OPEC’s fourth biggest oil producer, after all, where gas guzzlers rule the road and the air conditioning is always on — not just at its indoor ski slope. Its oil output and fossil fuel-burning airlines are growing, and its per-capita carbon emissions rank among the world’s highest.
Yet the UAE has emerged as an unlikely champion of clean energy.
The solar path
Dubai last month picked an Emirati-Spanish consortium to develop the third phase of a project building the world’s biggest solar park. The winning bid for the 800-megawatt phase of the project came in at an industry-wide record low cost of 2.99 US cents per kilowatt-hour.
Abu Dhabi’s government-backed Masdar opened a 100 megawatt plant using a different technology known as concentrated solar power outside the Capital in 2013. It aims to develop another 350-megawatt project in the emirate.
Dubai aims to generate a quarter of its power from clean-energy sources by 2030.
Sustainable city
Masdar is probably best known as the developer of Masdar City, a clean-energy showcase community being built near Abu Dhabi’s main airport. It has hosted dignitaries, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US Vice-President Joe Biden. It also houses the global headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Investing in renewables
Masdar has been busy developing renewable energy projects well beyond the UAE.
It owns a 20 per cent stake in Britain’s London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Another Masdar-backed wind farm is being built off England’s eastern coast.
In Spain, it teamed up with engineering company Sener to build three concentrated solar power plants. Among its projects in the Mideast are a wind farm in Jordan and a solar plant in Egypt.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, its sovereign wealth fund, sees potential in renewables too. Last October, it pumped $200 million into an Indian renewable energy company, ReNew Power Ventures.