Green grows the oil rich Gulf

Weekend Australian
22 January 2011, Page: 2

United Arab Emirates is pointing the way to a future of cleaner technology

FROM the rooftop of Abu Dhabi's convention centre hotel, the night sky is floodlit in all directions so there can be no let-up in the frenetic construction that is transforming this desert city into a showcase of human ability to change the world.

There's a glass tower that leans precariously, plans for a replica Louvre, Ferrari World and a Palace Hotel that really is a marble palace complete with a gold vending machine in the lobby. None of it seems out of place in a city carpeted with eight-lane highways on which every second car is a V12 Mercedes-Benz, four-door Porsche or fortified Range Rover. It's difficult to fathom then that Abu Dhabi considers itself ground zero for negotiations to cement a low carbon emissions future for the world.

This week Abu Dhabi hosted its third annual World Future Energy Summit to honour the environmental vision of the founding father of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan. It was a post-Cancun summit for the moneyed, attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon and his climate change attache Rajendra Pachauri.

US President Barack Obama sent his regards, as did his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former British prime minister Tony Blair. European and Asian heads of state and royalty turned up to offer their support, including the presidents of Iceland and Pakistan, prime ministers of Portugal and Georgia, and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden.

As technology companies in the alternative energy business showed their wares, there was everything from electric and compressed air motorcycles and battery operated cars to waste water filtration plants, new generation solar panels, giant offshore wind turbines and smaller nuclear power plants.

There was a big push for solar air-conditioning units that convert hot water to cold air. But the buzzword on everyone's lips was smart grid. This is the means through which electricity producers and sellers hope to be able to turn the dynamics of the electricity business on its head. Instead of electricity generators having to meet the fickle demands of users and build a system that can cope with peak demand, power users will be forced to meet the more erratic electricity supply characteristics of a grid made up of less predictable energy sources such as wind and solar.

Smart grids contain communication systems to allow electricity suppliers to load-shed (turn off) individual appliances such as air conditioners during peak demand or charge more to customers who want to keep the kettle boiling in times of scarce supply. Electricity demand management including even the public shaming of people who use more electricity than their neighbours underlies the model city that Abu Dhabi's state-owned energy company, Masdar, is building to pioneer alternative energy.

Abu Dhabi may be awash with oil and gas but it is willing to sponsor the creation of a post-oil world in the name of energy security and climate change. The Masdar Institute, a university and research facility linked to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is up and running and has entered industry-backed research projects with some of the world's big technology companies.

Agreements to date include research into breakthrough technologies in carbon capture, sequestration and the development of biofuel for the aviation industry from local salt-tolerant non-food vegetation. In contrast to motor vehicles, no one is expecting the development of a battery powered passenger aircraft soon.

Not constrained by elections or public opinion, the UAE has ordered four nuclear power plants, which it expects to be commissioned by 2020. Abu Dhabi's international nuclear co-operation ambassador Hamad al-Kaabi says nuclear has been chosen because it provides independence, energy security and an answer to global warming and environmental concerns.

Kaabi says the UAE's energy demand is growing at 9% a year and the country is a net importer of natural gas. Oil is expensive and a polluting form of power generation, he says. Coal is more polluting and renewable energies such as wind and solar can only meet 6% to 7% of peak demand, he says. But this has not stopped Abu Dhabi pioneering commercial scale solar power from both photovoltaic and concentrated solar sources. Kaabi says nuclear and renewable enterprises are "urgently needed as partners".

The Masdar Institute site has a 10MW solar array that in maintenance terms is the equivalent of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A team of cleaners wipes the desert sand from the solar panels to keep them working. It takes two weeks to clean them all, and as soon as they are finished it is time to start again. The Masdar city site also has a concentrated solar plant that has so far demonstrated that because of dust particles, Abu Dhabi sunlight is less than ideal for concentrating solar heat.

Undaunted, Abu Dhabi has committed to developing the Shams One 100MW concentrated solar plant in the western region, which is claimed to be the world's largest of its type. To cover all bases, the winner of this year's Zayed Future Energy Prize was given to wind turbine maker Vestas, even though Abu Dhabi has little wind to harness.

Masdar chief executive Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber says research is urgent for all forms of energy including clean fossil fuels, peaceful nuclear power and renewables such as wind and solar. And rather than pick a winner, Jaber says it is better for the different energy forms to slug it out. "To ensure the emergence of the most commercially viable, scalable and efficient technology, we must create competition", he says. "Competition drives innovation".

Masdar City itself has been a case study in technological innovation that has not always borne fruit. Development of the city is now being co-ordinated by Australian businessman Alan Frost, who has worked previously for Babcock and Brown and Lend Lease. Frost insists the project isn't just a real estate development but is linked to Abu Dhabi's 2030 vision to develop a post-oil economy.

"The idea of this is to create a clean tech cluster, the regional Silicon Valley of renewable energy", he says. Frost says Silicon Valley started as Stanford University business park in the 1940s and 50s and built its success in several decades. "I don't think anyone is thinking Masdar City is going to be instant", he says. "The key is the government support and the fact the government really does want to diversify away from being a carbon-based economy and has set a target for 7% renewable energy by 2020".

When it was launched three years ago, the plan was to build the city in five to seven years, but that timetable has now been pushed out by nine years. In addition, a revolutionary concept to build the entire city on a podium 7.5m off the ground has been scrapped. So too has the concept of having a network of several thousand driverless electric cars, or PRTs, to shuttle people around the city.

Only the institute and Masdar headquarters building will now be constructed on a podium to give the site some elevation. A handful of PRTs will be restricted to an 800m shuttle route that replaces a 250m walk. The ambitious plan to elevate the entire city was considered wasteful in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The delay in construction was also seen as a sensible way of avoiding being locked into to one generation of technology. "When we looked at building everything in five years, it was obviously the wrong approach", Frost says. "If it is all about innovation and learning and incorporating what you have learned in one phase to the next, then building it all to one specification on one day doesn't make a lot of sense".

Buildings have been designed to shade each other during the day and the walls of the institute are a combination of louvres and plastic compartments filled with ergon gas to cut down on radiated heat in order to lower the temperature of the entire site. A cooling tower in the centre of the square between the resource centre, laboratories and residential apartments has a display system that shows how much electricity is being used relative to what is being produced from rooftop solar panels.

The individual energy use of students will be monitored and they will be encouraged to compete to lower demand. The city will be pedestrian friendly rather than car-free, and without the driverless cars city planners are looking how best to integrate the public transport systems with a light rail and a network of electric taxis.

Despite the flat terrain, no one seems daring enough to suggest the bicycle. "Four years ago the thinking was Masdar was an island and could do everything on its own. What we have come to realise is everything we put in the ground has to join up with what is outside", Frost says. "We have learned we can't be an island". It is the same thinking that is driving Abu Dhabi's push to help pioneer new low-carbon technologies that can be exported to developing countries.