Oil, however, will have nothing to do with it. The sun, the wind and hydrogen will.
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the fourth largest OPEC oil producer with about 10 percent of the known reserves, is seeking to become a center for the development and implementation of clean-energy technology.
At first, the Masdar effort drew skepticism and a few snickers. The United Arab Emirates has been singled out as one of the world’s highest per capita emitters of carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases.
The U.A.E. has especially high energy demand to maintain a luxurious life of air-conditioning, chilled swimming pools and even an indoor ski slope in the emirate of Dubai.
The U.A.E. is only the most serious among Persian Gulf oil-producing countries whose thirst for electrical power has spawned efforts to find other sources of energy to save high value fossil fuels for export. Most Persian Gulf states get their water from desalinating gulf waters, an energy-intensive process. With their populations growing rapidly, domestic consumption of oil is commanding a greater share of production. Late last year Saudi Arabia and other gulf states began a research program looking into nuclear power; Iran, which has faced off with the United States and other international powers, insists that its nuclear program is intended to serve mounting energy demands domestically.
Alternative energy has attracted increasing interest over the past year as American industrial leaders have called for more aggressive action to be taken against the phenomenon of global warming and the Bush administration has focused greater attention on renewable energy. In Silicon Valley, the excitement over clean-energy technology startups recalls the flurry of new Internet companies in the 1990s.
“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 Technology Development Program at M.I.T. “That is a significant realization.”
Most important, they say, it hopes to prepare itself for a world that is not as reliant on fossil fuels as it is today. Abu Dhabi’s expertise, they say, is in energy, not just in oil.
“It is a very significant move because the Middle East is one of the areas where renewable energy has never made any strides.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/world/middleeast/18abudhabi.html?ex=1331870400&en=e87584d7bf64715a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the fourth largest OPEC oil producer with about 10 percent of the known reserves, is seeking to become a center for the development and implementation of clean-energy technology.
At first, the Masdar effort drew skepticism and a few snickers. The United Arab Emirates has been singled out as one of the world’s highest per capita emitters of carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases.
The U.A.E. has especially high energy demand to maintain a luxurious life of air-conditioning, chilled swimming pools and even an indoor ski slope in the emirate of Dubai.
The U.A.E. is only the most serious among Persian Gulf oil-producing countries whose thirst for electrical power has spawned efforts to find other sources of energy to save high value fossil fuels for export. Most Persian Gulf states get their water from desalinating gulf waters, an energy-intensive process. With their populations growing rapidly, domestic consumption of oil is commanding a greater share of production. Late last year Saudi Arabia and other gulf states began a research program looking into nuclear power; Iran, which has faced off with the United States and other international powers, insists that its nuclear program is intended to serve mounting energy demands domestically.
Alternative energy has attracted increasing interest over the past year as American industrial leaders have called for more aggressive action to be taken against the phenomenon of global warming and the Bush administration has focused greater attention on renewable energy. In Silicon Valley, the excitement over clean-energy technology startups recalls the flurry of new Internet companies in the 1990s.
“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 Technology Development Program at M.I.T. “That is a significant realization.”
Most important, they say, it hopes to prepare itself for a world that is not as reliant on fossil fuels as it is today. Abu Dhabi’s expertise, they say, is in energy, not just in oil.
“It is a very significant move because the Middle East is one of the areas where renewable energy has never made any strides.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/world/middleeast/18abudhabi.html?ex=1331870400&en=e87584d7bf64715a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
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