UAE must end subsidy to avoid ‘slipping into hole’

abu dhabi — UAE Minister of Energy and Industry Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei said the country is fast shifting to renewables and should end subsidy to avoid slipping into a hole. He noted that GCC interconnected grid can be expanded to include more countries as power trading is emerging as a profitable market.

“Our energy strategy for 2050 is to rely 50 per cent on fossil fuels and 50 per cent on non-fossil fuel – the green forms of energy. Solar will be 44 per cent of our energy installed capacity of electricity by 2050. The total installed capacity will be around 44GW,” AI Mazrouei said during a panel discussion held as part of at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec) on Tuesday.

“The pace of growth for us in the renewable energy in the UAE is going to be very fast.”

The minister said that pricing will be an important factor.

“At the end of the day, different forms of energy are competing on price to consumers. Price of generation should be competitive for the utility company to make money.”

The minister said the crucial step forward is a shift from subsidised system to a non-subsidised one in energy sector.

“Without that we are in a hole and that hole is going to get deeper and deeper as the population grows. So we are really solving a big issue for the governments in the Middle East. This is the essence We will do that without subsidy. We are depending on technology and larger products that we will launch to break the record year on year and achieve that target.”