Innovation for the 21st Century


Dynamic innovations for the 21st century


In the second half of the 20th century the economies of the Middle East have boomed on the back of excellent oil and gas resources. In the 21st century innovative approaches to harvesting energy from other sources will be increasingly important to provide power. Looking to the future, capturing power from the region’s abundant sun and wind could provide electricity for the growing population locally as well as even further afield.


Smart Energy, Smart Transport and Smart Utilities will play a key role in electricity generation. Transformation will entail greater use of smart grids, energy storage, solar power, wind power, marine energy and electric vehicles. How is the Middle East region gearing up to embrace these developments?


Harnessing energy from the sun


Two quite different techniques are currently used to generate solar power. Encouraged by incentives such as feed in tariffs, photovoltaic (PV) solar panels have been widely used in Europe, Asia and America. The panels operate in varying solar conditions and can be used as small scale (rooftop) grid-connected gener- ators as well as medium to large scale solar farms. Widespread use has brought down the cost of the hardware.


Concentrated solar power (CSP) is a different concept. CSP uses intense, reliable sunshine to fuel conven- tional generating plant. CSP employs multiple banks of mirrors to reflect heat from intense sunshine to a conventional power plant where it can generate to the grid. The intense solar irradiance in the MENA deserts


The heat is used to produce steam, which drives a turbine to generate electricity. The power station uses a gas fired booster heater to heat the steam as it enters the turbine and the condenser is air cooled in order to reduce water consumption. The hybrid plant is designed to be powered by solar power augmented by gas from the local field.


Shams 1 is the region’s first CSP station and is pro- viding valuable information about the behaviour of power plants in desert conditions. The site is very windy, especially in the spring months, and the plant is designed to operate in wind speeds up to 38 km per hour. Dust storms are common and all the 258,048 mirrors are cleaned twice weekly to maintain reflec- tance. A windbreak wall 11 metres high has been built around the two and a half square kilometres of the


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is suitable for CSP, and there is lots of interest in the technology. However, it is expensive and innovation and deployment are needed to make it commercially viable. Amidst widespread interest and excitement, the region’s first CSP plants started generating in 2013.


Shams 1 solar power station


Western Abu Dhabi is home to a new, innovative de- sert power station which distils sunshine to generate electricity. The 100MW Shams 1 power station is the second largest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant in the world. Over a quarter of a million mirrors are mounted on tracking parabolic trough collectors which are angled to follow the sun’s movements. The mirrors concentrate heat from direct sunlight onto oil-filled pipes which connect to the site’s conventional power plant.


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