Oil-Rich UAE Pushes U.S. to Consider Green Energy

[Abu Dhabi] The capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi, is investing heavily in alternative sources of energy. The oil rich emirate, the fourth largest OPEC producer, with 10 percent of the world’s known oil reserves, is keen to become a global center for the development and implementation of clean energy technology. The Masdar Initiative - a carbon-neutral city - backed by hundreds of millions of dollars of Abu Dhabi’s money is considered an ambitious goal. However, this historic step does not indicate that the rich emirate wishes to reduce its future investments in oil and gas. The oil and gas sectors still retain dazzling appeal to United States oil companies.

Big U.S. energy firms have a strong presence in UAE’s oil and gas sector, with a market share of 51%, according to published data. The giant multinational Halliburton unveiled plans last March, to move its base to Dubai, one of the UAE's seven emirates. Halliburton, which was headed by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney until 2000, said this move will take advantage of the Gulf region's vast oil and gas markets. The New York Times quotes Energy Intelligence Group analyst Susan Shook saying, “they are moving to the center of the Eurasian-African hemisphere and that’s where the bulk of the work is going to be in the future.”

According to the National U.S. Arab Chamber of Commerce publication, last June the U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Michele Sison, said, “with almost $12 billion in U.S. goods exported to the UAE in 2006, opportunities for American industry are virtually unlimited. Among the many sectors showing excellent promise are aircraft and parts, the oil and gas sectors, construction materials, safety and security equipment, medical equipment and project management and architectural and engineering services. “

The country’s current total oil production is around 2.8 million barrels per day, but in April 2007, the UAE’s Minister of Energy, Muhammad Bin Zain Al-Hamili, announced plans to increase production to 3.5 million barrels per day by 2009. Al-Hamili was also president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2007.

One of the more important energy investments planned for the UAE in the next few years will be by ExxonMobil, which along with ADNOC and the Japan Oil Development Company, plans to increase production from Abu Dhabi’s huge Upper Zakum oil field from 520,000 barrels a day to around 750,000 barrels. ExxonMobil is also establishing a Technology Center in Abu Dhabi to support and train personnel in the most advanced production technologies. Abu Dhabi Oil and Gas City, a $1 billion tax-free zone for the energy industry, will house offshore firms in such fields as engineering, project management, consulting and finance. Occidental Petroleum is also working on the Dolphin Project, a multi-billion dollar initiative to bring natural gas from Qatar to the UAE and Oman.

Given the UAE’s critical need for energy and power, the energy sector is a key area for investment. A vital component of this strategic relationship is maintaining an unhindered flow of oil and gas.

In his meeting with David Hamoud, chairman of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, ‘Salah Salim A-Shamsi, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry encouraged American companies to increase their investments in Abu Dhabi. A-Shamsi stressed the importance of allowing American companies an opportunity to enter the fields of engineering consultancy, oil services, and other fields and assured Hamoud that the UAE authorities would facilitate and pave the way in this regard.

Clean Energy

Abu Dhabi, bloated with oil money, is eager to explore the clean energy sector, which will definitely represent new opportunities for U.S. clean-tech companies. The Masdar initiative has attracted both attention and skepticism due to the relatively simple fact that Abu Dhabi’s Masdar initiative to research and develop renewable energy sources seems odd coming from one of world’s leading oil exporters. Despite the criticism, Masdar is still pursing its goals and showing how serious it is. Thus, Masdar is partnering the most prominent U.S. companies, educational institutions, and investment firms. The Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), a government owned organization mandated to execute the Masdar Initiative, is open to new partnerships from all over the world.

Dr. Sultan Al-Jabir, CEO of Masdar, explained, "The world needs a portfolio of solutions, It can no longer be hydrocarbons or renewables. It is a combination of both." Since its commencement, Masdar gained momentum and support by participating in the Clinton Global Initiative on Energy and Climate Change (CGI) last year in New York.

In February 2007, the ADFEC signed a cooperative agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) whereby MIT faculty would help expand the curriculum and organization of the Masdar Institute. Sultan Ahmad Al-Jabir, CEO of Masdar, hailed the agreement with one of the world’s most prominent universities. He said “The Masdar Institute will serve as the nucleus of the Masdar Initiative, feeding it with talent and innovative technologies to enhance economic development and promote new industries using renewable energy and resources in the emirate and the region.”

President George W. Bush visited a proposed model of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City at the Emirates Palace Hotel in January this year. He said, "We just heard a briefing about how they're going to construct a city based entirely upon renewable energy. It will be an opportunity to see what works and what won't work, and an opportunity to share their technology with others.”

In Jan 21 this year, the ADFEC hosted the first World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, attracting around 200 of the world’s foremost innovators and experts clean energy, and an exhibition of alternative energy technologies. During the summit, His Highness, General Sheikh Muhammad Bin Zayyid Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, announced the most ambitious sustainability program ever launched by a government, to be funded by an initial investment of $15b. for projects targeting solar, wind and hydrogen power; carbon reduction and management, and sustainable development.

It is worth noting that American companies and universities are involved in the building and operation of Masdar. U.S. company CH2M HILL was appointed program manager for the first phase of the development and will be responsible for technology integration. Also, the American Louis Berger Group of consulting engineers will manage the Masdar city design process. So far, four architects firms have been shortlisted for the contract for designing the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) headquarters in its planned carbon-neutral city. Shortlisted are Foster & Partner, Murphy & Young and Atkins, all of the UK, and the US firm, Smith & Gill. Khalid 'Awad, director of the property development unit at Masdar said, "We will announce the winner soon." Groundbreaking on the world’s first zero carbon emmission city took place on 9 February. On the other hand, some analysts say that this city seeks to create a new global community only for the elite as it is not a social project.

SIDEBAR:

UAE-U.S. Security Ties By Sherin Deghedy

Security issues play an important part in the U.S.-UAE bilateral relationship, and given regional tensions, will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. For more than a decade, the Defense Cooperation Agreement of 1994 between the U.S. and the UAE has provided a solid basis for military cooperation and coordination. Under this agreement, the UAE has participated in joint military training exercises with U.S. forces and offered U.S. forces access to UAE ports and territory. Lockheed Martin Corporation, for example, has worked closely with the UAE government on providing solutions to its defense needs, such as the F-16 fighter plane. Raytheon has had a presence in the UAE for decades and has been a key provider of UAE air defense systems since 1980.

Written by Sherin Deghedy

photo credit - NREL

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The Year in Energy

Advanced biofuels, more-efficient vehicles, and solar power top the most notable energy stories of 2007.

The Rise of Biofuels

Corn ethanol production has grown so fast, driving up corn prices and driving down the price of ethanol, that some producers are having trouble breaking even. But an energy bill signed into law last week that requires greater use of biofuels will provide new incentives for both production of biofuels and research into new technologies. Reaching the ambitious goals set by the law will require new technologies for transforming biomass into fuel. (See "Oil from Wood," "Breaking Ground on Cellulosic Ethanol," and "BP's Bet on Butanol.") Others are developing ways to convert biomass into hydrocarbon fuels that could be more practical than ethanol. (See "Making Gasoline from Bacteria.") In the current print issue, Technology Review's editor takes a close look at the technology needed to replace a significant part of gas consumption with renewable fuels and the costs of doing so. (See "The Price of Biofuels.")

Cheaper solar panels

Investors are rushing to pour money into solar energy companies to capitalize on an industry that's growing by leaps and bounds. That brought good news for solar technology this year, as the wraps came off a number of technical advances that could eventually make energy from the sun as cheaply as conventional sources. These include new types of panels that use cheaper materials or cheaper manufacturing techniques. (See "Making Cheaper Solar Cells" and "Solar Power at Half the Cost.")

One company in particular, San Jose-based Nanosolar, attracted attention for its decision to build an enormous manufacturing facility for making inexpensive thin-film solar panels (see "Large-scale, Cheap Solar Electricity"), only to see delays in production. But by the end of the year the company had started manufacturing solar panels for its first customer.
Researchers are also investigating more distant possibilities for solar, including using the exotic physics of quantum dots and mimicking the complex chemistry of photosynthesis to help make solar power ubiquitous. (See "TR10: Nanocharging Solar" and "Supplying the World's Energy Needs with Light and Water.")

Managing Carbon Dioxide

Researchers are making progress in finding ways to use carbon dioxide as a source of raw materials for fuel, by taking a cue from biology. (See "Making Gasoline from Carbon Dioxide" and "Turning Carbon Dioxide into Fuel.") But these technologies are still far from eliminating the need to sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide in order to reduce greenhouse emissions. (See "The Precarious Future of Coal.")

Clearing the Way for Alternative Energy

If alternative energy sources such as wind and solar are ever to provide a big chunk of our electricity, we'll need a better system for storing and distributing that power. That's because these sources of energy, unlike coal or nuclear power, are intermittent: solar panels only make power when the sun shines. New battery systems (see "Fixing the Power Grid") and thermal storage systems (see "Storing Solar Power Efficiently") could help.

More-Efficient Vehicles

GM made news this year with its plans for a new electric vehicle that gets extended range, compared to other electric vehicles, from an onboard generator. (See "Electric Cars 2.0.") Other companies are developing similar vehicles. But technologies for boosting the efficiency of conventional internal combustion engines could play a big role in helping automakers meet new fuel economy standards. (See "The Incredible Shrinking Engine" and the blog, "Better Fuel Economy on the Way.")


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Beyond the Solar Panel

The government tests cars for gas mileage. Now it's testing roof tiles for wattage.

Homeowners have long been able to partially power their homes with sunlight, but it meant clumsily mounting photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof. Now the latest generation of PV panels look and act much like ordinary roofing tiles or shingles. And the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is evaluating nine of these commercial PV roofing products in hopes of providing an easy way for consumers to judge the panels' power potential.

"A lot of people are considering the use of PV products on their homes and businesses, and in order to make decisions on whether it's a worthwhile investment you need to predict their performance," says Hunter Fanney, head of NIST's Heat Transfer and Alternative Energy Systems Group in Gaithersburg, MD. "We are collecting detailed performance data to validate those models."

The roofing materials, which use various types of solar-to-electricity conversion, are being tested for 15 months. Fanney hopes to use the data to build a computer program and database with, among other things, average flat-surface solar radiation readings for neighborhoods across the United States (as measured by the weather service at the nearest airport). Punch in the performance characteristics of the roofing product you want to use, plus your location, roof orientation and slope, and other data, and -- bingo -- you'll know what kind of wattage you can expect from your roof.

According to Fanney, roofing tiles and shingles with embedded solar converters have been on the market for about three years. They look like regular roofing materials, keep out the sun and rain, and can be installed in much the same way. But by generating electricity, these tiles and shingles save consumers money.

Around 500 square feet of PV tiles can produce three kilowatts of electricity, according to Subhendu Guha, president and chief operating officer of United Solar Ovonic, a maker of PV shingles in Auburn Hills, MI -- and most roofs are several times that size. His company's version is dark blue and can blend with ordinary shingles of a similar shade. Or a builder might devote an entire sunny section to PV materials.

"A south-facing roof on a three-bedroom home could supply 20 to 30 percent of the home's electrical needs," says Paul Maycock, a consultant and head of PV Energy Systems in

Without subsidies and incentives, such as those in California, PV power costs about twice as much as utility power, says Thomas Leyden, vice president of east coast operations for PowerLight, a PV systems integrator in Berkeley, CA. That difference, however, is shrinking. "PV hardware prices have gone down tenfold in the last 15 years, thanks to new technologies, better manufacturing techniques, and more efficient use of materials," Leyden says. Prices are currently falling by about 5.5 percent yearly, he says, so they should come down another 50 percent in a little more than a decade -- and become fully competitive with utility power.

Maycock is even more optimistic, projecting that the installed price will fall from today's $8 or so per watt to $4 by 2014. That would make solar power "fully economic in the Sunbelt," he notes.

Meanwhile, Guha maintains that PV roofing is already economical at certain times of the day, in places where utilities charge extra for peak daytime usage. There, he says, it can be used to avoid paying those surcharges, a practice called "peak shaving."

Historically, the biggest market for residential PV roofing has been in Japan, which gets about half the sunlight that California does and the average residential user derives only a kilowatt. But government incentives, low mortgage interest rates, and high utility power rates have made residential PV popular there, says Maycock.

Source - MIT Technology Review

Salt water as fuel - could bring a whole new meaning to fire-water

For obvious reasons, scientists long have thought that salt water couldn't be burned.

So when an Erie man announced he'd ignited salt water with the radio-frequency generator he'd invented, some thought it a was a hoax.

John Kanzius, a Washington County native, tried to desalinate seawater with a generator he developed to treat cancer, and it caused a flash in the test tube.

Within days, he had the salt water in the test tube burning like a candle, as long as it was exposed to radio frequencies.

His discovery has spawned scientific interest in using the world's most abundant substance as clean fuel, among other uses.

Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, held a demonstration last week at the university's Materials Research Laboratory in State College, to confirm what he'd witnessed weeks before in an Erie lab.

"It's true, it works," Dr. Roy said. "Everyone told me, 'Rustum, don't be fooled. He put electrodes in there.' "

But there are no electrodes and no gimmicks, he said.

Dr. Roy said the salt water isn't burning per se, despite appearances. The radio frequency actually weakens bonds holding together the constituents of salt water -- sodium chloride, hydrogen and oxygen -- and releases the hydrogen, which, once ignited, burns continuously when exposed to the RF energy field. Mr. Kanzius said an independent source measured the flame's temperature, which exceeds 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, reflecting an enormous energy output.

As such, Dr. Roy, a founding member of the Materials Research Laboratory and expert in water structure, said Mr. Kanzius' discovery represents "the most remarkable in water science in 100 years."

But researching its potential will take time and money, he said. One immediate question is energy efficiency: The energy the RF generator uses vs. the energy output from burning hydrogen.

Dr. Roy said he's scheduled to meet tomorrow with U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Defense officials in Washington to discuss the discovery and seek research funding.

Mr. Kanzius said he powered a Stirling, or hot air, engine with salt water. But whether the system can power a car or be used as an efficient fuel will depend on research results.

"We will get our ideas together and check this out and see where it leads," Dr. Roy said. "The potential is huge.

"In the life sciences, the role of water is infinite, and this guy is doing something new in using the most important and most abundant material on the face of the earth."

Mr. Kanzius' discovery was an accident.

He developed the RF generator as a novel cancer treatment. His research in targeting cancer cells with metallic nanoparticles then destroying them with radio-frequency is proceeding at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and at the University of Texas' MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Manuscripts updating the cancer research are in preparation for publication in coming months, Mr. Kanzius said.

While Mr. Kanzius was demonstrating how his generator heated nanoparticles, someone noted condensation inside the test tube and suggested he try using his equipment to desalinate water.

So, Mr. Kanzius said, he put sea water in a test tube, then trained his machine on it, producing an unexpected spark. In time he and laboratory owners struck a match and ignited the water, which continued burning as long as it remained in the radio-frequency field.

During several trials, heat from burning hydrogen grew hot enough to melt the test tube, he said. Dr. Roy's tests on the machine last week provided further evidence that the process is releasing and burning hydrogen from the water. Tests on different water solutions and concentrations produced various temperatures and flame colors.

"This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," Dr. Roy said of salt water. "Seeing it burn gives me chills."

By David Templeton