By Zainab Jobarteh
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the impending host of the United Nations Climate Summit – COP 28. The Gambia News Agency was part of the invited media agencies to inspect and report on the country’s sustainability projects. In this series on the projects, ahead of the COP, we feature ‘Masdar’, a clean energy pioneer established in 2006 in Abu Dhabi.
Masdar is one of the fastest growing developers in the world and have committed more than 30 billion USD for clean energy projects around the world.
The establishment of Masdar came about when the leaders of UAE decided that they wanted an Abu Dhabi-based company that will have the knowledge, competence and willingness to deploy renewable energy within the UAE and internationally.
Abdul-Aziz Alobaidli, the Chief Operating Officer for Masdar said that they have been investing in a lot of innovative and unique projects and their current capacity is 20GW of projects, however, he added that they are targeting to make it a 100GW by 2030, five times more in less than seven years.
He admitted that the target is ambitious and challenging but they believe that they are well positioned ‘‘thanks to the support we are getting from our shareholders and the commitment we have from all our partners and nations we work with’’.
Mr. Alobaidli said they are relying on the headwind they will get from the COP28 to support them in reaching their ambitious target.
‘‘We established and dedicated a business unit on a green hydrogen in the beginning of the year and we aim to produce one million tons of green hydrogen per annum. Hopefully, we will announce our fares during COP28, pioneering the projects of green hydrogen,’’ he informed.
He also stated that their team is working with several partners from different nations to advocate and push the agenda of green hydrogen and ensure that they can deploy commercially viable access to enable green hydrogen projects.
Muhammed Al Shehhi, the Director of Bids and Proposal at Masdar said Masdar has done many innovative projects like Shams, one of the largest CSP parabolic projects in the region; the Sharjah Waste-to-Energy Projects, the first Waste-to-Energy Project in the entire region and the world’s first floating offshore projects.
Giving a short biography of the Chairman of Masdar, Mr. Shehhi said their Chairman, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is the founding CEO and has been serving for 11 years, adding that he spearheads the renewable and climate change sector of the UAE and is the President Designate for COP.
‘‘With his leadership,’’ he continued, ‘‘we are keen to utilise the COP28 platform and further focus on the global south’’.
He affirmed that they are committed to deploying billions of dollars to invest in Africa, adding that they are keen to continue their investment in the strategic market.
The Bids and Proposal Director informed that Masdar is only focusing on renewable energy projects, mainly solar, CSP batteries, waste energy and geothermal.
Abdulla of Masdar said they are present in Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, the GCC countries, Jordan, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal, Europe, USA, Spain, UK, and that they have plans to expand to more African countries.
C0P28 being around the corner, Mr. Abdulla said Masdar being the champion of renewable energy for UAE needs to accelerate their development and move faster.
