By TBY | UAE | Dec 16, 2015
The event was opened by keynote speaker, HE Dr. Rashid Al Leem Chairman of the Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority.
The event was opened by keynote speaker, HE Dr. Rashid Al Leem Chairman of the Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority, who said the purpose of the summit was: “The 2nd Annual Power & Water forum was a very well organized forum. It was an honor for me to have been invited as a Key Note speaker that enabled me to highlight my view on the three most important pillars of sustainability, those being of an economic, environmental, and social nature, to the business world, especially after the latest announcement of the UN General Assembly about the 17 sustainable development global goals. I wish you more success in your future endeavor.”
The key topics that the academic and professional speakers brought to the summit included solar power, energy optimization, energy storage, advanced turbine inlet air-cooling, and district cooling, a topic presented by TBY’s GCC Regional Director, Betül Çakaloglu.
Çakaloglu’s speech drew upon the research and interviews from the various teams in respective GCC fields and showed that the GCC has one of the most varied annual demand curves in terms of power and access to only 1.4% of the world’s renewable fresh water.
“Properly employed district cooling can provide around 30% of the GCC’s forecasted cooling needs by 2030. This would, according to calculations, save 200,000 barrels of oil per day in fuel and save the region from having to build 20 GW of new electricity generating capacity. It’s estimated that this would also work out to a regional decrease of 31 million tons in CO2 emissions every year,” stated Çakaloglu.
Cooling capacity in the GCC costs approximately $50 billion to install and accounts for 50% of electricity consumption. Up to 2030, cooling demand in the GCC is expected to nearly triple, and will cost the GCC approximately $100 billion to reach demand.
It was noted that the GCC is typified by forward-thinking governments that actively seek ways of finding sustainability, acknowledging the superiority of saving money long-term through making initial investments.
To look at examples of this through the region, Dubai is hoping to increase its district cooling penetration from 20% to 40%, while Abu Dhabi is targeting an increase from 10 to 30%. Throughout the UAE, district cooling is currently growing about 10% YoY.
Qatar is another example; in 2013, a ministerial directive banned the use of potable water for cooling. Since then plants have come forward with innovative, environmentally friendly alternatives, such as switching to treated sewage effluent (TSE). The result is two pronged; Qatar saves its limited desalinated water resources and at the same time reduces the amount of TSE discharged into the sea.
Garry Subaiah, Head of Production for the forum, said: “Our annual forum shows a united effort for a sustainable and efficient future, right across the region. We believe that our second coming, marks a successful initiative to understand the current demand to plan the future supply of power and water.”
The event was attended by 110 prominent academics and executives, in addition to the key stakeholders, ICEM & SEES (Gold Partner), EnergyNest (Supporting Partner), Grundfos (Networking Partners), and Electro-Total (Associate Partner).
