A global report has applauded the great energy mix of the UAE and has highlighted its potential as a regional leader in renewable energy.
The Energy Industries Council (EIC), one of the world’s largest energy trade associations, in its report, ‘UAE: EIC Country Report – November 2022’, also sheds light on UAE’s hydrogen developments, saying that as of October 2022, the UAE has six projects under development that could see a com-bined capital expenditure of about $1.66 billion.
“The UAE could be a key player and deliver 25 per cent of the production of the global low-carbon hydrogen market by 2030 without having any spe-cific production targets,” the report reads.
The UAE plans increase the share of clean energy to 50 per cent of its power mix by 2050.
Ryan McPherson, EIC’s Regional Director for Middle East, Africa, Russia, and CIS, says: “The UAE offers a great mix of energy projects for businesses from around the world and has indeed attracted some of lowest bids for solar energy projects in the history of the industry.”
“What’s always been interesting about the UAE is that it has kept a leading position as conventional energy producer and yet set up very progressive plans to produce more of its power from clean energy.”
On nuclear power, the report states that the fourth and last unit of the UAE’s nuclear power plant is expected to start operation in 2023 as it’s currently undergoing final stages of commissioning.
While the UAE’s conventional thermal power plants are largely fired by natural gas, almost 86 per cent of the installed capacity, the country has a combined installed capacity of close to 3 gigawatts generated from solar and energy-from-waste power plants.
The UAE, home to the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), will host the 28th session of the Conference of the Par-ties (COP 28) from November 6 to 17, 2023.
The Opec member holds the world’s fifth largest proven oil reserves (113 billion barrels) and 290 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas. It plans to ramp up its oil production to 5 million barrels per day by 2027. By 2030, this capacity is planned to reach 6 million bpd.
At present, the UAE’s capacity is just over 4 million bpd while actual production stands at 3.668 million bpd.