The Webinar was organized by EQ Magazine Pro on 8th June 2022, powered by JA Solar and moderated by Mr. Numayr Enam, Regional Manager South Asia & Egypt – Univergy Solar. The webinar was regarding UAE PV Invest Tech.
The insightful session was brilliantly moderated by Mr. Numayr Enam, where he lithely discussed numerous challenges, opportunities, and the upcoming technologies of UAE.
Mr. Mohamed Nassef, Executive Business Development Manager – Acwa Power Revealed the major challenges that the manufacturers face executing the utility-scale projects in UAE. He demonstrated the three primary challenges, first one is related to the site topography, where there’s a huge requirement for extensive site leveling since the sites are more of high hills, ups, and downs. The construction of a PV site is not that plain sailing and one should be very sure about the site conditions, site leveling, and the topography of the site.
The second challenge according to Mr. Naseef is concerning the implementation timeline, as mostly, the off-takers and the client are very tough in timelines, but unexpected situations can also happen at times, so buffers need to be incorporated to account for that.
The third most challenge is all related to the weather condition. Since it’s very difficult to work in UAE during summer daytime, so to avoid the high temperature, the work gets paused for 3-4 hours during the daytime.
In the further conversation, Mr. Naseef explained the importance of teamwork in every aspect for guaranteed success.
Mr. L K Verma, Founder & Managing Director – Power n Sun demonstrated the role of the supply chain in the utility-scale projects, where he explained the three sectors in it. One is utility, the second is commercial and industrial (C&I), and the third one is residential. In the further conversation, he conveyed that 70-75% of the time, cost, and energy are actually spent in making the material available to the site but mostly ignored. He further spoke about the price fluctuations and the importance of absorbing these price fluctuations to ignore the shutting up of 30% of the solar projects. So, whether the orders are booked or not manufacturers start material planning for the next 3-6 months, to avoid such kind of situation.
In Mr. Verma’s opinion, there’s a major contribution of the supply chain in the Solar Industry but the focus is always been on the technology side.
Dr Nabih Cherradi – Chief Technology Officer – Desert Technologies Expressed his views on UAE and how they can reach their goals and how they can compile with the commitments they made to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. UAE’s target is to generate 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2040 and 50% by 2050 so according to Mr. Nabih, these numbers seem to look very high but they are reachable, as their implementation of the projects brings out about 16-17% capacity on yearly basis, UAE is slowly becoming a development hub for equipment manufacturers and is among the first in the world, especially in the MENA region who started investing outside also.
Mr. Ahmed Nady, Senior Technical Associate – Enara Group Shared his experience as a senior technician associate and spoke that “The Emirates have many advantages that make it even more attractive to invest in the field of solar energy especially, such as the location of United Arab and Arab Emirates within the sample of the highlands. Solar energy is playing a major role as a renewable source of energy”. In further conversation he discussed the advantages as a developer, considering the UAE market, and also discussed the opportunities for the EPC companies.
Concerning the future vision, Mr. Nady gave some great insights about solar energy and stated that Sheikh Mohammad Rashid, the President and Prime Minister of Emirates have called the solar panels to be installed on every roof by 2030, as a part of a miraculous vision.
Mr. Joel Michael, Vice President – Global Partnerships – EKI Energy Services Limited Addressed the Middle East as an epicentre of everything, that’s happening in climate tech, and stated ” Everything from what the Government is doing whether it’s about the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan or the UAE dream agenda 2040, 2030 is all catered to foster innovation regionally and bring in solutions from around the world to come to the region to create an example as a launch platform to build a community and awareness for green solutions rather than just offsetting. UAE is launching an incubator and accelerator to promote the faster innovation within the region”. According to Mr. Joel, there are a lot of opportunities for growth and development for climate change start-ups.
Mr. Mohammad Abuhilal – CEO – Sun Synergy Group Asserted his views on the future of solar energy and said that, each country in the globe has its policies and its way of dealing with the clean energy solutions, and also explained that, the future comes from each country in different dimensions and approaches. Mr. Abuhilal very lithely explained interesting facts about the bright future of the Middle East and expelled that, clean energy is playing a major role in reducing carbon effect globally, and envisioned that in near future every homeowner, factory owner or the business owner will slowly move towards the clean energy sources, which would be beneficial for them to reduce their bottom line of the electricity bills.
Mr. Vinod Kumar K.J.C., Principal- Strategy & Consulting, Accenture Strategy – Accenture Strategy Explained the kinds of allied demand centres in solar PV in the UAE market, and said that UAE has become the most promising market for solar development as well as for the solar asset sector too, so it’s the time to place the existing gas and other assets and at the same time it is also important to connect and be electrify the sectors such as green hydrogen and technology. These sectors typically would need clear green computers and stimulus kind of support. Exceeding the conversation Mr. Vinod discussed the UAE’s net-zero emissions target for 2050 and the hydrogen road map, which is really going great in the MENA region.
Dr. Mustapha Taoumi, Clean Energy Technology Expert – EU GCC Clean Energy Technology Network Expressed his views on the importance of partnership, for the development and operating process of solar assets. In dr. Mustapha’s outlook UAE is working very aggressively on their ambitious targets on renewable, and to reach this huge target, there’s is a need for a proper vision, a conventional study which includes all the sectors, focusing on scale, industry sectors, transport sectors, and the building sector, to integrate solar on these sectors, and again he shared his thoughts regarding the significance of holistic framework which comprises of policies, technology, finance and most importantly the workforce.
