Oil-Rich Emirate Hosts World Future Energy Summit, Showcases Zero-Carbon City (VIDEO)

Last week, environmental activists, politicians and business executives from the world's leading energy companies met in Abu Dhabi for the second annual World Future Energy Summit.

But why would a country with one of the highest per capita carbon footprints in the world and 10% of the world's known oil reserves be investing billions into the research and development of alternative and renewable energy?

Sooner or later their massive oil reserves are going to dry up and they will need a head-start on the inevitable transition that we all will make to alternative energy, especially if they want to support their lavish lifestyles. For those who believe solar energy will be a significant source for future energy, it is worth mentioning that the Persian Gulf's year-round sunshine makes it a promising testing site.

Watch top executives from companies like Siemens, ExxonMobil and Hydrogen Energy International, a company that designs plants that manufacture low-carbon hydrogen from fossil fuel feedstock and is collaborating directly with Masdar and BP, comment on Abu Dhabi, Masdar and the future of energy.

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The three day summit offered a peek at what the future energy economy might look like and marked a rapidly growing trend in the Gulf of investing in research, education and technology in the renewable sector. The irony is that these oil and gas rich countries are allocating the profit from their oil revenues to invest in the development of new energy sources, aware that if they want to continue powering their massive air-conditioned malls and indoor ski slopes in the future, they are going to have to make solar, thermal, wind or some other combination work to their advantage.

Masdar City, a futuristic zero-carbon city, was the focus of the summit. Following the trend of Western satellite campuses sprouting across the sands of the Persian Gulf, the city is set to include a research park with laboratories affiliated with a campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Even cars, which are abundant and luxurious here will not exist in Masdar city, instead residents will commute on electric driverless pods shuttling across the city.

But Abu Dhabi's ambitious plans have prompted those skeptical of the ability for locals to adjust to this "green lifestyle" to seriously question the feasibility of Masdar's aims. Still, at the summit progress was visible, enthusiasm was high and construction was already underway despite the difficult global economic climate.

Follow Ahmed Shihab-Eldin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hamoodirakan

Comments

[David Gow]

If I'm not mistaken, all the new technologies with which Abu Dhabi is trying to gain energy/resource leadership were invented elsewhere, even the "electric driverless pods" (aka personal rapid transit, a primitive version was built in W. Va. in the 70s, federally funded). Makes their decisionmakers look all that much smarter, if they pull it off.

[rr52]

I've been writing an environmental blog since 2006. And 455 blogs later I still run into some totally uniformed idiot that argues about global warming and alternative energy. The biggest disservice the Bush administration did was prevent the possibility for any unity in this country by spreading doubt through lies that had nothing to do with environmental science.

[mergina]

The Arab world has been the leader in oil production, and soon they will be the world leader is solar energy production.

[Agent420]

Simple. They are trying to turn sunlight into a liquid. They will use the energy to separate the oxygen from the hydrogen. Then liquefy the hydrogen and ship it over here, set up their own system for distribution and get rich on both ends. In the meantime we are still talking about drilling for oil in VERY expensive environments.
So, the Abu Dubai people have it right, wind and solar. The fat cats whine that you would have to have thousands of wind generators as a negative thing. It is only negative because they will not have control. It is really a positive. If you have a nuclear reactor go off line, you may be looking at a shortage of 1000 megawatts. If you have a wind generator fail, you only take about 5 megawatts off line.

[William1950]

if we go solar... who will have "abundant natural resources"? Abu Dubai... plus they are smart. ditto wind energy... I still think that small point of use generation is the way of the future... maybe the distant future though, we are too used to centralized power, too used to following and being led.