The water wildcard

THE WATER

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WILDCARD

46 > QATAR TODAY >MARCH 2015

SOLAR ENERGY IS UNDOUBTEDLY THE POSTER CHILD OF THE REGION’S RENEWABLE ENERGY EFFORTS. BUT IS THE TIDE TURNING? WILL WATER TURN OUT TO BE THE SILENT CHAMPION OF OUR GREEN PROGRAMMES?

W

By Ayswarya Murthy

hen talking renewables, water often never even makes it to the table. Yes, China continues single-mindedly to build more dams but that’s not what we mean.

Like in any industrial process, water is an essential component of energy generation and the renewables space is no exception.

A report by the World Policy Institute predicts that expansion of renewables and development of new technologies in this area will be limited, in some regions, by the availability of water. “We are introducing all kinds of technology to reduce the carbon impact of energy, without doing anything to reduce its impact on water,” Michele Wucker, co-author of the report, was quoted as saying. Because the truth is that most renewable energy sources (Solar PV and wind are notable exceptions) demand plenty of water for their cooling needs (see table).

In this region, this water is hard to come by. The water that is being used IS essentially energy, which makes up for almost half the costs incurred in seawater desalination.

This is why water technologies might be considered to have more green potential for

the region when compared with any other initiatives, and that includes solar, energy efficiency, wind and green buildings. The Cleantech industry saw a sudden growth in confidence for water technologies in 2014, according to Ernst & Young’s 4th MENA Cleantech Survey Report that was launched at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi recently. “Surprisingly, water was mentioned less frequently as a growth area over the last three years, but it has swiftly broken through to being the leader in market potential in the next five years. In addition, prospects for investment in water infrastructure have improved markedly over previous years,” the report says. The annual survey, the fifth of its kind by EY, gauges the sentiments of senior industry executives, academics and experts on renewable energy implementation in the region. It would appear that solar, which has begun to come into the spotlight over the last couple of years, is about to be overshadowed by this less glamourous but fundamentally pivotal cog in the ecosystem.

We say less glamorous because acres and acres of solar panels glimmering under the desert sun will always make for better press than the novel osmosis membranes in

"Surprisingly, water was mentioned less frequently as a growth area over the last three years, but it has swiftly broken through to being the leader in market potential in the next five years."

NIMER ABU ALI

Director, MENA Power and Utility Ernst & Young

QATAR TODAY > MARCH 2015 > 47

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AVERAGE NUMBER OF GALLONS OF WATER CONSUMED TO PRODUCE 1 MWH

Coal IGCC

200

Wind

0

Solar (photovoltaic)

0 835

Solar (thermal) 0

Run of the river

4,500

Hydroelectric

1,400

Geothermal

Raw

180

Thermoelectric (Natural gas)

Trans

Thermoelectric (oil)

390

Thermoelectric (coal)

390 560

Thermoelectric (nuclear)

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

* based on different methods of defining water withdrawal

"Increasingly, energy efficiency and developing new processes which use less energy result in reducing specific energy consumption is becoming more important."

DR ADEL SHARIF

Research Director Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute

48 > QATAR TODAY >MARCH 2015

desalination plants or treated waste water being reused in industrial processes. According to Kahramaa reports, desalination accounts for 99.9% of all the water used in Qatar; the plants in Ras Abu Fontas and Ras Laffan produce close to the 327 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) of the water consumed. Kahramaa plans to add a further 192 MIGD to this capacity by 2020. And every million gallons of fresh water require on average 15,000 kWh of power. Power that, despite best intentions and efforts, still largely comes from conventional hydrocarbon sources. So naturally, every Watt of energy that is saved and every gallon that is reused matters.

The Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) does extensive work on developing water technologies, a division that is headed by Research Director Dr Adel Sharif. His work can be divided into three neat categories. “First, R&D into desalination which includes thermal and membrane processes or a combination of both forward osmosis and membrane distillation technologies; secondly, waste water treatment and water reuse which can maximise the amount of reclaimed water from treated wastewater for non-potable use like irrigation, industry and landscaping; and finally, assessing aquifer recharge by studying subsurface geology and computer modeling.”

While we have continued to hear much about powering the energy intensive

desalination process through solar, this is yet to be implemented. “I am very supportive of the concept, of course,” Dr Sharif says. “Using a suitable collector you can use solar thermal technology efficiently for this purpose. However, our institute focuses on solar PV rather than solar thermal.” (For the uninitiated, Solar PV is the conversion of solar energy directly into electricity through photovoltaic cells while solar thermal harnesses the heat energy to power a turbine) Hitherto, it has been expensive to combine solar thermal and desalination processes. “The challenge is space availability. These coastal desalination plants, built several years ago, do not have enough space around them for panels and collectors. This and the large investments that have already gone into conventional methods are probably why this technology isn’t picking up yet,” he says. Nimer Abu Ali, Director, MENA Power and Utility for EY, echoes these sentiments. “I am not sure if the trend of solar powered desalination is feasible right now. It needs a lot of investment, both financially and technically, and we need to have at least a couple of projects operational that can prove its financial viability before it can be kicked off in the earnest,” he says. With solar salvation still some time away, researchers and businesses have turned their attention to the other side of the equation – water. Irrespective of the specific needs of the various Arab countries, water technologies are now in

Source: World Policy Institute

0

Hydroelectric (*)

MOST IMPORTANT BARRIERS/CHALLENGES TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF CLEAN TECHNOLOGY 6% 3% Environmental/technology issues (such as dust and humidity) Grid infrastructure

25%

Insufficient government policy frameworks and regulations Insufficient private financing and limited financing experience among banks for renewable energy projects

3% 4%

59 %

Lack of local capacity (workforce training, domestic contractors etc.)

Price competitiveness compared to traditional energy sources Source: Cleantech Survey Report, Ernst & Young

focus. From the GCC countries concerned about water scarcity to Egypt that is working towards energy security or Algeria that is trying to make its conventional energy sources more efficient, Dr Sharif feels that green energy efforts have started to focus on the overall energy balance in the system and to maximise the amount of water produced from that given energy. “Increasingly, energy efficiency and developing new processes which use less energy result in reducing specific energy consumption (measured in terms of how much kWh is needed to produce one cubic metre of water) is becoming more important. Usually, in this region and specifically in Qatar, water and power plants are combined so that heat from power plants can be used for desalination. So the lesser the energy requirement, the more appropriate it is for the use of solar power (which suffers from the limitation of relatively lesser power generation),” he says.

Abu Ali clarifies that this doesn’t imply that solar in the region is winding up even before it begins. Just that the potential around water technologies is growing proportionally higher and taking a leading role. While solar is projected for growth, there is a perceptible shift in the renewable space, he says. “In my personal opinion, people have high expectations of solar due to announcements from big projects in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. But several of those programmes are yet to be kicked off. A lot of money has been invested and expected returns are not yet in sight,” according to him.

Apart from this there is also the lack of solid regulations around renewables that makes retrofitting technology more appealing. “I know from my discussions with industry leaders that there needs to be more deliberation in the government on policy framework. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have made serious progress compared to others but the rest have to get started with this framework. It has always been, and continues to be, one of the top priorities among the private sector,” Abu Ali says.

And surveys like these are indicative of the trends in the sector and the increasing belief in renewables. The government and regulators should judge the appetite for investment by the private sector and react to it, according to Abu Ali. But in the research side itself, quite a few developments are starting to infuse business with optimism. Dr Sharif says the innovations that the region is witnessing in water technologies are unique. “Unfortunately, advancements in water treatment and desalination are usually limited and sometimes not encouraged because water is a commodity that needs to be produced in large quantities to be economical. The argument of water companies is that because the market is fixed and growth is limited, there is no motivation to invest in water technologies. But in the GCC, growth is steep and there is an urgency to come up with advanced processes. QEERI and research houses like it in the region, with work around new concepts like forward osmosis, will pioneer a step change in this technology,” he says QATAR TODAY > MARCH 2015 > 49