Abu Dhabi: Turning to the sun in the land of oil
By Hassan M. Fattah Published: March 15, 2007
ABU DHABI: Just on the outskirts of this Gulf city, past a refinery and a water desalination plant, the foundations are being poured for an ambitious project intended to take this big oil producer into the next energy boom.
Oil, however, will have nothing to do with it.
The sun will.
Abu Dhabi, one of the world's largest oil producers, is seeking to become a center for the development and the implementation of clean energy technology. Last year, the emirate, which is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, began the Masdar Initiative, a far-reaching program that seeks to rope in various companies, government ministries and universities around the world to help develop and commercialize renewable energy technologies backed by Abu Dhabi's money.
Despite initial skepticism and a few snickers, Abu Dhabi has sought to prove it is serious about clean energy. Masdar has already started a $250 million "clean technology fund" and begun construction of a special economic zone for the advanced- energy industry.
Last month, it announced plans to build a 100-megawatt solar plant in the area, and shortly after that it announced the formation of a graduate teaching and research institute in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The progress has many advocates of clean energy buzzing. "For a player in that world to recognize that there's this other component to the energy business is itself a recognition that the world is changing," said Marc Stuart, director of New Business Development at EcoSecurities, a research firm. "It is a very significant move because the Middle East is one of the areas where renewable energy has never made any strides."
From its gleaming high-rise towers to its billion-dollar marble-encrusted Emirates Palace Hotel, this city prides itself on being an example of what oil money, put to good use, can do.
Oil helped turn Abu Dhabi from a desert fishing village into a major Arab capital with political clout. It helped build a citizens' trust fund that is estimated to be worth as much as $300 billion and today brings the emirate almost twice as much income as its oil sales do.
Now, Abu Dhabi means to show that petrodollars can spark and develop innovation in the clean energy business, too.
Ultimately, Abu Dhabi's leaders envision the emirate as the Bangalore, India, of clean energy, both producing research and selling the technology.
In a decade, Abu Dhabi should have expertise in solar energy, photovoltaics, energy storage, carbon sequestration and hydrogen fuel.
Most important, they say, it hopes to prepare itself for a world that will not be as reliant on fossil fuels as it is today.
"We realize that the world energy markets are diversifying, so we need to diversify, too," said Sultan al-Jaber, the chief executive of Masdar. "We see the growth of renewable energy as an opportunity, not as a problem."
The project is not so much sizable as it is symbolic. The emirate, with about 10 percent of the world's oil reserves, could have a lot to lose from the adoption of clean energy in place of oil. Yet its effort is the most serious acknowledgment by a major oil producer that the energy market is changing.
"They've seen the writing on the wall: Where will all these places be post-oil?" said Virginia Sonntag-O'Brien, managing director of BASE, a center in Basel, Switzerland, that facilitates investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. "It's their message that they are an oil-producing nation taking the energy and climate issue seriously, and developing their own economy."
Last month, Masdar announced plans to build a $350 million solar power plant, the first plant of its kind in the Gulf region, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Power and Water Authority. The plant will have a capacity of 100 megawatts — enough to power as many as 10,000 homes — and could be either a stand-alone plant or part of a water desalination project.
Shortly after, Masdar announced an even more ambitious plan to develop a graduate-level research center in combination with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that will be focused on renewable-energy technologies.
Scientists who join the program will be able to attend MIT courses and will be assisted in developing research and curricula at Abu Dhabi.
MIT administrators liken the effort to one in Bangalore in the 1960s that helped create the high-technology industry there.
"This is the first oil-producing state that has accepted and agreed with the concept that oil may not be the only source of energy in the future," said Fred Moavenzadeh, director of the MIT technology development program. "That is a significant realization."
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