Dubai to secure nuclear power from Abu Dhabi

Dubai has ruled out plans for now to build a nuclear power plant and will be securing electricity from nuclear reactors coming up in Abu Dhabi, a senior government official told Emirates 24|7.

“We have an understanding with Abu Dhabi on receiving power from the nuclear reactors coming up in Abu Dhabi. There is no decision to build a nuclear power plant,” said Ahmed Butti Al Muhairi, Secretary General of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy.

In its efforts to secure sustainable energy and improve demand efficiency Dubai is targeting to generate 5 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy, 12 per cent from clean coal, 71 per cent from natural gas and 12 per cent nuclear energy by 2030.

Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec), the federal authority responsible for building and operating the first UAE nuclear power plant, officially commenced the construction of the UAE’s first nuclear energy plant in Barakah in 2012.

The UAE is constructing a total of four nuclear energy plants in Barakah with Enec working to deliver safe, clean, efficient and reliable nuclear energy to help address the UAE’s future energy requirements, which is expected to grow at a rate of 9 per cent per year - three times the global average.

The first plant is expected to commence operations in 2017. When all four plants come online by 2020, nuclear energy will save the UAE up to 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

A coalition led by Korea Electric Power Corporation was awarded the contract to build the first nuclear power plant in December 2009.

Emirates 24|7 reported on Wednesday that Dubai already has sufficient spare power and water capacity to meet the demands for World Expo 2020.

“We have an installed capacity of 9700 megawatts (MW). Last year, the peak load in summer reached around 6500 MW and so it means we have enough spare capacity to meet the requirements of Expo,” Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Vice-Chairman of Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and CEO of Dewa, said after announcing the launch of Wetex 2014.

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