Try this at home. Take a shallow tin pan, paint it matte black on the inside, insulate the bottom and sides as best you can - try cotton wool - and pour in a small amount of water. Cover it with a pane of glass, put it outside in direct sunlight and, presto, the water will boil and give off steam.
Congratulations. You have just saved the planet - and, perhaps, solved the UAE's power problems.
This, in essence, is the technology behind the three-square-kilometre Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant on which work has begun in the desert 120km south-west of the capital city. Shams 1 will use the concentrated heat of the sun's rays to make steam and drive turbines that can generate enough electricity to supply 60,000 homes.
CSP technology is simple, effective and harmless to the environment. It can even be used to produce desalinated drinking water as a by-product. Surprisingly, it is 100 years old, which, during the week Abu Dhabi hosted the World Future Energy Summit, raised two simple questions: what have we been waiting for, and why can't the UAE solve its looming energy crisis by simply covering vast tracts of its sun-kissed deserts with CSP plants?
The answers, of course, are more complex than the questions.
The experiment above was described in 1916 by Frank Shuman, a US inventor from Philadelphia, to explain the principle behind a solar-generating plant he had set up in 1913 in Egypt at Maadi, today a suburb of Cairo. To create his Number One Sun Engine, Shuman used five 60-metre-long parabolic "troughs", mirror-lined heat absorbers aligned to track the sun's progress across the sky, to concentrate the rays onto five matte-black boilers, which then produced sufficient steam to pump almost 23,000 litres of water a minute.
Shuman's plant successfully irrigated agricultural land alongside the Nile for two years, but it could just as easily have been used to operate an electricity-generating turbine, as he intended it should.
Backed by UK investors and interest from the British and German governments, Shuman had a grand plan: to build a series of giant solar plants in the Sahara to challenge the supremacy of King Coal. "You would only need 20,250 square miles [52,450 sq km] in the Sahara in order to supply the whole world with energy," he calculated. "One thing I know for sure. If mankind does not learn how to harness the power of the sun, he will ultimately fall back into barbary."
But mankind was not yet ready to be saved. The First World War put paid both to the Maadi plant, which was broken up for scrap metal to supply Britain's munitions industry, and the Sahara project. Shuman died in 1918 and, when vast and easily accessible oil deposits were discovered in Iraq and Iran after the war, his dream of cheap, clean solar power was buried with him.
The technology flared into life again briefly in the 1980s, when a number of plants were built in the United States in response to the oil crisis. But when the black stuff started flowing again, solar was once more put on the back burner. One hundred years after Maadi, a "fall back into barbary" might not be looming but there is certainly mounting concern over global warming and CSP technology is being resurrected.
Shuman's broader vision has been taken up by the Desertec Foundation, an international nonprofit collaboration of scientists, concerned individuals and alternative-energy companies that believes a combination of solar power from the world's deserts and wind power can provide all the electricity we need. What's more, it envisages a network of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) lines connecting the countries that have these resources with those that need them. With HVDC lines now capable of carrying power more than 2,500km without serious losses, countries in the Mena region could not only provide all their own electricity, but could sell excess power to Europe and beyond.
Potentially, the UAE is poised to become part of that grander scheme. In June, Masdar announced it had teamed up with the energy company Total and Abengoa Solar, a Spanish firm and one of the founding partners of the Desertec initiative, to build and operate the first large-scale solar power plant in the Middle East.
Shams 1, under construction at Madinat Zayed, will have a capacity of 100MW when it comes online next year, but it will not hold the lead for long in the accelerating solar power race.
For a start, it will be overshadowed in the United States by two other Abengoa projects, each capable of generating 250MW. But the country in this region with the biggest solar ambitions is Morocco, which in 2009 unveiled plans for a project worth US$9 billion (Dh33bn) designed to supply more than one-third of the country's generating capacity by 2020, a massive investment for the country, but one it hopes ultimately to recoup by selling electricity across the Mediterranean through the proposed Desertec network.
It is no secret the UAE's demand for power is outstripping its capacity. The key fact underpinning the country's nuclear energy policy, published in April 2008, was that peak demand for electricity, rising by about 9 per cent a year, was expected to hit 40,000MW by 2020 - double existing capacity. By then, there would not be enough natural gas available and, while burning crude oil, diesel or even coal would be "logistically viable", the economic and environmental costs would be too high.
A second 100MW plant, using photovoltaic technology - solar cells that generate electricity directly - is planned for Al Ain. Although this is a start, the total contribution of renewables, including the planned installation of home PV units on rooftops, is not expected to exceed 1,500MW by 2020, a fraction of the UAE's anticipated 20,000MW shortfall.
So why is not the UAE simply covering its deserts with CSP?
After all, a back-of-the-envelope calculation based on the size and capacity of Shams 1 shows that to generate the UAE's entire 20,000MW shortfall by 2020 would require 200 such plants covering a total of 700 square kilometres of desert (Abu Dhabi has about 67,000 going spare).
In making its case for nuclear power - four plants costing $20bn are expected to be online by 2020 - the UAE believes alternative energy can play only a relatively small role in closing its energy gap. According to the 2008 policy document: "Evaluation of alternative energies, including solar and wind, suggested that … even aggressive development could only supply 6 to 7 per cent of peak electricity demand by 2020."
Mohammed al Zaabi, the general manager of the Shams Power Co, says it is important to see solar's role in a wider context.
"Shams 1 is the first major step towards achieving the seven per cent target of renewable energy by 2020. It is going to pave the way for future projects to come online. It is one of the largest solar power projects around the world, so it is important for Abu Dhabi, but also being observed by the international community to see how successful this project is."
It would not be prudent, he says, for Abu Dhabi simply to cover the desert with CSP plants and rely on a single energy technology. "Abu Dhabi is investing in different technologies for different reasons, including energy security and diversity, and also to make sure that we reduce the carbon footprint of Abu Dhabi. So it is also investing in conventional power, nuclear and renewable energy."
Most of the seven per cent target for renewables will be achieved through solar, but while CSP is the oldest proven technology in the field, "we are also evaluating the options for the other solar technologies, such as photovoltaic, which has been improving dramatically over the past few years. We are not only looking at the technical aspects of each technology, we are trying to get the best technology for Abu Dhabi, which also has the best cost".
The accepted wisdom is that solar power is by far the most expensive way to generate electricity and is, therefore, economically unviable. A widely cited March 2010 report by Booz & Co, a global management-consulting firm with offices in Abu Dhabi, concluded that, with an estimated cost of up to 30 US cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), electricity produced by solar power was up to six times more expensive than generation using natural gas.
True, based on its estimated cost of $600 million, scaling Shams 1 to the power of 200 would cost $120bn. But according to Abengoa, Masdar's Spanish technology partner in the Shams 1 project: "Mass production and economies of scale will reduce solar electricity costs to a competitive level with the next 10 to 12 years."
In any case, say supporters of solar power, even the apparent price gap is not as wide as it appears. For one, once a solar plant is up and running there are no fuel costs and, most crucially, "energy markets are terrifically distorted", says Gerry Wolff, one of Desertec's international co-ordinators. "And the main distortion is that fossil fuels are still receiving quite large subsidies around the world."
Indeed, the highest hurdle still facing most renewable-energy projects around the world are subsidies that serve to widen the gap between fossil fuels and solar and other technologies.
This is particularly true in the UAE, according to "The Basis of Abu Dhabi's Quest for Renewable Energy and Policies Required to Meet its Goals", a report published in September by the Dubai School of Government. Abu Dhabi,it noted, supplied gas to its generating plants for about $1 to $2 per million BTUs [British Thermal Units, a standard measurement of energy], "which is the rough equivalent of selling oil at $6 to $12 per barrel when world market prices are near $80".
This dramatic underpricing meant domestic consumers in Abu Dhabi paid less than two US cents per kWh compared with the 10 cents paid by US consumers.
The scale of the subsidy - and the implication that the Government is paving the way for the sort of price adjustments already seen at petrol pumps - is being brought home to consumers. In letters being distributed along with its bills, Abu Dhabi Distribution Co is pointing out to householders that water and electricity in Abu Dhabi "costs much more to produce than you pay".
An Emirati family living in a four-bedroom villa, for example, pays nothing for its water and typically only Dh559 a month for electricity. If the subsidies disappeared, the family would face a monthly bill for water and electricity of Dh3,920, a hike of more than 600 per cent. An expatriate family living in a three-bed flat would see their bill increase to Dh636 from Dh327, a rise of almost 95 per cent.
The letters follow a 2009 report by the Abu Dhabi Regulation and Supervision Bureau, which revealed that in 2006 residents each consumed an average of 41,000kWh of electricity - almost four times as much as their counterparts in the United States.
"Why are we telling you about the 'waived cost'?" ADDC's letter asks its customers. "So that you know the true value of water and electricity. We believe this will encourage many people to take greater care when using these resources."
Mr al Zaabi agrees that "to have fair competition between renewable energy and conventional power there should be a reduction of subsidy". Indeed, he says, "this is already being studied … the Government is thinking of reducing the subsidies for conventional power by increasing the price of the consumer bill."
But, says Jim Krane, the author of the DSG report and a member of the Electricity Policy Research Group at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, if it's going to happen it will have to happen soon - and not just to give solar power a fair chance of having its day in the sun.
"Abu Dhabi has nuclear power coming online by 2018, but it's going to have a four- or five-year gap where it's not really sure where its feedstock and its power supplies are going to come from. So the Government is now agonising over this. Should it burn diesel fuel temporarily? Should it build a terminal and import liquid natural gas for a number of years before nuclear comes online? Or should it press its energy consumers to get them to lower consumption and reduce demand and squeeze out some extra time that way?"
When it comes to the environment, as speaker after speaker at Abu Dhabi's World Future Energy Summit reminded us this week, time is not the commodity it used to be, but as it starts to run out we are discovering all over again that the answer may have been staring us in the face all along.
"Sun power is now a fact and no longer in the 'beautiful possibility' stage," Frank Shuman told The New York Times in 1916. "We have proved the commercial profit of sun power and … that after our stores of oil and coal are exhausted the human race can receive unlimited power from the rays of the sun."
His vision was engulfed by the rising tide of oil. Perhaps now, as that tide starts to recede, a technology that has languished in the shadows for generations will finally find its place in the sun - and a home in the deserts of Abu Dhabi.
jgornall@thenational.ae
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Company%20profile
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BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
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If you go
Flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh with a stop in Yangon from Dh3,075, and Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi to Phnom Penh with its partner Bangkok Airlines from Dh2,763. These trips take about nine hours each and both include taxes. From there, a road transfer takes at least four hours; airlines including KC Airlines (www.kcairlines.com) offer quick connecting flights from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville from about $100 (Dh367) return including taxes. Air Asia, Malindo Air and Malaysian Airlines fly direct from Kuala Lumpur to Sihanoukville from $54 each way. Next year, direct flights are due to launch between Bangkok and Sihanoukville, which will cut the journey time by a third.
The stay
Rooms at Alila Villas Koh Russey (www.alilahotels.com/ kohrussey) cost from $385 per night including taxes.
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Company%20Profile
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Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
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BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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IF YOU GO
The flights: FlyDubai offers direct flights to Catania Airport from Dubai International Terminal 2 daily with return fares starting from Dh1,895.
The details: Access to the 2,900-metre elevation point at Mount Etna by cable car and 4x4 transport vehicle cost around €57.50 (Dh248) per adult. Entry into Teatro Greco costs €10 (Dh43). For more go to www.visitsicily.info
Where to stay: Hilton Giardini Naxos offers beachfront access and accessible to Taormina and Mount Etna. Rooms start from around €130 (Dh561) per night, including taxes.
The biog
Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists.
Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.
Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic
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PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
RESULTS
6pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 – Group 1 (PA) $55,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner: Rajeh, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Musabah Al Muhairi (trainer)
6.35pm: Oud Metha Stakes – Rated Conditions (TB) $60,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Get Back Goldie, William Buick, Doug O’Neill
7.10pm: Jumeirah Classic – Listed (TB) $150,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: Sovereign Prince, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby
7.45pm: Firebreak Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Hypothetical, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
8.20pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 – Group 2 (TB) $350,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Hot Rod Charlie, William Buick, Doug O’Neill
8.55pm: Al Bastakiya Trial – Conditions (TB) $60,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Withering, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
9.30pm: Balanchine – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner: Creative Flair, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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