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Irish Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment, and Transport briefed on DEWA’s global leadership and ambitions in solar energy · DEWA Podcasts

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, we're going
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  to cut through the noise and really examine the
• 0:05
  blueprints for an ultra rapid clean energy transition.
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  And we're doing that with a very specific source.
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  The title is Irish Minister of Climate, Energy
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  and Environment and Transport briefed on Dubai,
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  electricity and water authorities, global leadership
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  and ambitions in solar energy. So it's a diplomatic
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  visit. What does this meeting really reveal about
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  high level energy strategy? Well, it shows how
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  nations are exchanging critical knowledge. It's
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  about achieving massive growth in renewables,
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  not just step by step. OK, so let's set the scene.
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  Who was meeting where? We have a high level delegation.
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  Led by the Irish minister, His Excellency Dara
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  O 'Brien. And he met with His Excellency Saeed
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  Mohammed Al -Tayr, the managing director and
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  CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority.
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  Correct. And the location itself is, well, it's
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  a huge signal. The Mohammed bin Rashid Al -Maktoum
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  Solar Park. Which is the largest single -site
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  solar park in the world. So they're meeting right
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  at the heart of the action. So the discussion
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  wasn't just here are solar panels. It was bigger.
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  Much bigger. It centered on global strategies
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  for the clean energy transition, but also on
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  the policies that support sustainable urban development.
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  It's about creating a model that could be exported.
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  A model for going clean fast. Let's dig into
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  the scale then, because the numbers here are
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  really interesting. They are. The current capacity
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  of the park is 3 ,860 megawatts. Wow. And what
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  does that mean for Dubai's total energy, Mick?
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  That's already 21 .5 % of Dubai's total energy.
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  From one park. And the target for 2030. That's
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  where it gets really aggressive. The goal is
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  to exceed 8 ,000 megawatts. Which would push
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  the clean energy share to what, over a third?
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  To 36 .1%, yes. And that's projected to cut annual
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  carbon emissions by over 8 .5 million tons. That
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  requires a complete shift in infrastructure,
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  not just adding more panels. Exactly. So once
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  you hit that scale, the obvious question is how
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  you manage the intermittency of solar. Right.
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  The sun doesn't shine at night. That's where
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  diversification comes in. Precisely. And the
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  document highlighted three key initiatives showing
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  they're looking well beyond just solar capacity.
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  What's the first one? It's a building called
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  Al -Shera. It's planned to be the world's tallest
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  net positive government building. Net positive.
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  So it produces more energy than it consumes.
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  That's the idea. It's aiming for the highest
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  certifications like OE platinum and well gold
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  using, you know, IOT and AI to manage everything
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  dynamically. Okay, so that's a demand -side innovation.
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  What about storage and production? Well, the
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  second project they highlighted was the Hata
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  Hydroelectric Power Station. And that's a first
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  for the region, isn't it? It is. It's the first
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  in the Gulf Cooperation Council. It provides
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  250 megawatts of capacity, basically acting like
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  a giant battery for the grid. And the third initiative,
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  I'm guessing it's hydrogen. You guessed it, the
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  Green Hydrogen Project. It's a key project for
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  the whole Middle East and North Africa region.
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  So they're using solar energy to produce hydrogen.
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  Right. And that gives them a way to store energy
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  for long durations, which is critical for grid
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  resilience. So this is where it gets really interesting
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  for me. You have the massive solar park, the
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  new hydro storage, the green hydrogen. It's a
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  complete system. And it all aligns with Dubai's
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  strategy to hit 100 % clean energy by 2050. And
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  it's all powered by embedding fourth industrial
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  revolution technologies like AI and deep digital
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  infrastructure right from the start. So if we
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  tie this all together, what's the core takeaway
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  here? I think the core takeaway is that this
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  kind of high speed transition relies on technological
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  acceleration. It's not just about scaling up
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  one source of power. No, it's about the ability
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  to dynamically integrate solar, hydro and hydrogen
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  and then using smart infrastructure to manage
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  those incredibly complex energy flows. Right.
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  Managing it all efficiently and reliably. OK,
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  so here's a final thought for you to consider.
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  Achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2050 is
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  the big ambitious goal. But the real engineering.
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  challenge, it seems to me, is in the near term.
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  How does a system seamlessly manage that jump
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  from about 21 % clean energy now to over 36 %
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  in just a few years, while also balancing brand
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  new power sources like dispatchable hydro and
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  flexible green hydrogen? That jump, that requires
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  rethinking the grid entirely.