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However, at the same time as it is pursuing the exploitation of renewable energy sources, Abu Dhabi is also developing a nuclear programme worth billions of dollars. The UAE has signed accords with the US, South Korea, France and Japan, and eventually plans to meet 25% of its power requirements through nuclear energy, according to government estimates. And nuclear energy has long been the subject of intense debate and controversy, with critics arguing that it poses significant dangers to man and the environment, particularly in the wake of the Fukushima plant disaster in Japan.
"Our energy system has to fundamentally change and can be fundamentally changed," said German chancellor Angela Merkel as she announced in late May that the country would close all of its nuclear plants by 2022. "We want electricity to be safer and, at the same time, reliable and economical."
Nuclear plans take shape
The UAE is similarly looking for reliable and economical energy, but appears to share no such qualms over the safety of nuclear power. In late December 2010 it was announced that the UAE had filed construction licenses for its first two reactors with the country's new nuclear regulator, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR).
Submitted a year after the awarding of a $20bn construction contract to a South Korean consortium led by KEPCO, the 9,000-page applications for Braka Units 1 and 2 are based largely on the safety analysis done for two units in South Korea, on which the Braka reactors are modelled. KEPCO has stated that construction of the Braka site's harbours, breakwaters and waterways will be completed in 2011, along with labour accommodation for 10,000 workers.
The first power plant is expected to come online in 2017, and it is anticipated that all four Braka reactors will be up and running by 2020. As Germany strips its reactors down, the UAE's cooling towers will be going online, in a bid to satisfy the country's long-term energy requirements, as well as guarantee fuel subsidies that have become even more important in the wake of the uprisings of the first half of 2011.
"What we've seen in the last few months, with the Arab Spring, is going to seriously complicate things when it comes to renewables," warns Samuel Ciszuk, Senior Middle East and North Africa Energy Analyst at IHS Global Insight.
"If there's something which no government in the Middle East or North Africa would want to do for the forseeable future, that is to cut energy subsidies - it was the first casualty of the unrest, even before the Tunisian president fled," he continues.
"With very generous subsidy regimes in place, the case for renewable energy is weakened and is far more problematic, because renewable energy is generally much more expensive, certainly than nuclear energy."
Strong commitment to renewable energy
The permanent headquarters of IRENA were nevertheless located in Abu Dhabi after an intense period of lobbying, during which the UAE capital highlighted its commitment to green issues, and pointed towards the Masdar Initiative as a prime example of eco-friendly development.
Staff
