GE pumps funds into wastewater research

General Electric (GE) is boosting research into recycled water, banking on the US$5 billion global market growing even bigger.

As rapidly increasing demand for water strains supplies across the Middle East, GE has announced that it will increase research spending on waste water filtration systems by 50 per cent, including at new research centres in Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

The US technology conglomerate has long been a major supplier of power generation equipment in the region, but now sees wastewater and water re-use systems as two of the “biggest opportunities” for growth, Steve Bolze, the head of the firm’s water and power equipment units, told Bloomberg.

GE, which has a number of business links to Mubadala Development, the strategic investment arm of the Abu Dhabi Government, will also conduct research on water technologies at an energy technology centre planned for Masdar City, the carbon-neutral development at the edge of the capital.

“We think it’s going to be a great business, not only in the US but in China,” said Jeffery Immelt, the chief executive of GE. “The entire Middle East is constrained so this is a problem that’s shared broadly.”

Experts say filtration and re-use of waste water for industry, irrigation and even household applications will receive more attention as rising consumption stretches the region’s water desalination capacity.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), a group of energy consuming nations that is based in Paris, predicts energy use will soar across the Middle East as demand for desalination doubles in the next 20 years. Of that new capacity, 70 per cent will be located in the Gulf states, Algeria and Libya, the IEA said.

The increasing amounts of energy used for desalination served as an incentive for greater use of recycled water, said Dieter Ernst, the chief executive of Berlinwasser, a German water company that operates a joint-venture firm in the UAE. “There’s a very strong link between energy consumption and water use,” Mr Ernst said. “The main question is what to do with it in the re-use cycle.”

Residents, he said, “are not so aware that water is a resource”.

Demand for water in Abu Dhabi is expected to double by 2030, according to a forecast presented last week by the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company.

Faced with rising demand, the Government has moved to de-regulate the wastewater sector to encourage foreign investment and increase capacity for treatment and re-use of wastewater.

The emirate recycles 60 per cent of its water and has plans to increase the figure to 100 per cent, said Alan Thomson, the managing director of the Abu Dhabi Sewerage Services Company.

* with Bloomberg

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UAE wins support from US on Irena - International Renewable Energy Agency

SHARM EL SHEIKH // The US will join the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) today and throw its support behind Abu Dhabi’s bid to host the headquarters at Masdar City at this evening’s vote, according to three US State Department officials interviewed here yesterday.

The officials did not wish to be named because they did not want to pre-empt an announcement expected to be released in Washington today. A decision by the world’s largest energy consuming nation to join Irena would reverse the policy of the previous US administration, under George W Bush, which argued against creating a new institution when existing UN regulatory organisations and the International Energy Agency already dealt with the development of renewable energy.

An endorsement of the bid to host the headquarters would represent an important boost in a months-long lobbying effort to bring the headquarters to Abu Dhabi.

“The way I look at it, we’ve done our homework,” said Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, the Minister of Foreign Trade. “We capitalised on our strong bilateral relationships with so many countries and also the commitment we have through our diversification of the economy.”

Officials from more than 114 member states will gather here to decide among competing bids by Abu Dhabi, Vienna and Bonn, as well as choose a director and allocate budget for the new agency.

“We have a very comprehensive, committed bid,” Sheikha Lubna said. “The bid is not merely about having an office in there as a secretary. We’re committed in many aspects in terms of co-investment with other countries towards renewable energy development.”

Irena’s creators say it will serve as focal point for information and policy on renewables, and the Government hopes a base in Abu Dhabi would elevate the emirate’s status as a global energy player.

The UAE Foreign Ministry has mounted a visible and aggressive campaign to bring Irena to Abu Dhabi, with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, concluding a tour of dozens of countries in the past few months, said Ahmed al Za’abi, the UAE ambassador to Egypt.

“The diplomats of the UAE, under the leadership of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, have exerted unprecedented diplomatic efforts,” he said.

Mr al Za’abi said that as a diplomat he was “warily optimistic” that the UAE would win the vote.

“After meeting the heads of the delegations in Sharm el Sheikh, most of them showed appreciation and support of the Emirates,” he said, adding that he thought the percentage of supporters was high.

Sheikha Lubna said the Government was “pretty comfortable and confident” going into the vote.

The UAE’s delegation kept up the lobbying yesterday: Mr al Za’abi was on hand at the airport to personally greet arriving delegates, and kandoras were a common sight in the hotels among dozens of officials deployed to Egypt to make the case for Abu Dhabi’s bid.

A number of European countries have also come out in favour of the UAE, including France, Portugal, Spain and Finland, noting that it is better placed than a European city to reach out to developing countries.

Irena will collect information on renewable energy, make recommendations to governments, and even train companies and officials in methods for implementing energy projects, said Arthouros Zervos, the president of the European Renewable Energy Council, who is one of four candidates for the post of director general.

It was likely that the group’s first priority would be to participate in climate change talks later this year, he said.

From the UAE’s point of view, Irena played into a larger objective by the Government to preserve stability in the energy market, since it would promote diversification of energy supply, Mr al Za’abi said.

Even though it is a member of Opec and an exporter of oil, he said, the UAE is interested in alternative energy because of its interest in the stability of the international energy market and the stability of the world economy.

cstanton@thenational.ae

mhabboush@thenational.ae

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