Adam Bruce: Abu Dhabi summit shows the future is green

THE World Future Energy Summit, this year hosted by Abu Dhabi, is the Davos of clean energy.

It brings together heads of government, business and non-governmental organisations to drive forward the global transition to a sustainable energy future.

Attending a reception at the British Embassy there to mark the three-day summit, which ends tomorrow, I was joined by a group of Scottish academics, here to support the Scottish Government’s framework agreement with Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s clean energy foundation.

Sixty years ago British companies arrived in the Gulf to prospect for oil. This week the UK delegation was prospecting for wind, solar and other clean tech opportunities in a region that has realised refining its oil to burn to generate electricity no longer makes sense.

The opportunity for Scotland is reflected in a new agreement between Masdar and Energy Technology Partnership, which puts Scottish universities at the heart of the development of the next generation of clean energy technology, building on the experience gained in developing wind and other low carbon plant at home.

Addressing the summit, China’s premier Wen Jiabao spoke of its renewable energy ambitions. Over the past three years China has shut down 80 gigawatts of old coal plant, more than the UK’s capacity. It has already built 47GW of wind plant, and 3GW of solar plant, and its manufacture of wind turbines and solar panels is helping drive down the cost of renewable energy in global markets. Renewable energy is at the heart of China’s growth strategy.

This represents another huge opportunity for the 900,000 employed in the UK’s low carbon goods and services sector, selling into China, and mobilising Chinese capital and technologyfor the UK.

WFES proves renewable energy sector is a global player. Last year $260 billion of private capital was invested in it, up 5 per cent on 2010. It provides a huge investment opportunity for nations and customers keen to protect themselves from volatile fossil fuel prices, secure their energy supplies, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

l Adam Bruce works with Mainstream Renewable Power, an energy firm developing an offshore wind farm off the east coast.