With the demand for power growing exponentially on the back of a building boom, the government of Dubai, having recognised the value of exploiting solar power, has picked the Dubai Techno Park to promote it in a big way.

The proposed Dh50 million ($13.6 million) cluster of facilities will be spread over 400,000 sq ft and include the region’s first-of-its-kind R&D centre for designing and building, solar thermal air-conditioning solutions, solar power plants and other large-scale solar thermal solutions for medium and large projects. Construction is expected to begin by this month (September).
The city already boasts the UAE’s first platinum certified ‘green building’, which is powered solely by solar energy. The five-storey green building, where solar-thermal air-conditioning units have been installed by Royal Gulf, a Dubai-based firm, is a first for Dubai and the UAE and it is only the 15th such building in the world.
“Solar energy is the future, a cool idea that makes a lot of economic and environmental sense given that it is limitless, renewable and 100 per cent pure. In a region blessed with sunshine all round the year, it makes even more sense, especially during the merciless summers when demand for power surges and air-conditioning accounts for almost 80 per cent of all the electricity consumed,” says a spokesman for Dubai-based solar energy specialist Royal Gulf.
“Each year, air-conditioning accounts for almost 80 per cent of all electricity consumed between the months of April and October in the country. This huge cost can be reduced significantly with the efficient use of solar energy. The thermally-powered cooling process requires only a fraction of the electrical power required by the conventional reference system. More so these absorption chillers are static machines and hence have negligible maintenance compared to conventional chillers,” says the spokesman.
“Under adequate-climatic conditions (such as are prevalent in the UAE), solar and solar-assisted air-conditioning systems can be reasonable alternatives to conventional air conditioning systems.
“Because solar cooling is based on thermally-driven processes instead of the normal electrical cold production, the costs for the used heat plays a central role: the fundamental problem arises from the inherently higher costs of solar heat compared to heat energy produced by fossil fuel systems or waste heat,” he says.
One of the down sides of the technology is that the initial costs are high and solar panels take up a lot of space (you would need an area of 200 sq m to set up 100 solar panels) – which is why it isn’t a realistic solution for individual residences.
However, for large-scale and medium-scale real estate developments, such as The Palms, solar-powered air-conditioning solutions are viable – and in the long term, more cost effective, he says.
He adds: “Consider also the impact on the environment. Solar thermal systems have big advantages over conventional cooling systems, especially those that use problematic, ozone-depleting refrigerants (CFCs).
“Solar-thermal air-conditioning units use water as a refrigerant and a 65 per cent salt solution as an absorbent thereby generating totally clean and non-polluting power.
“Not only do solar-thermal systems avoid the use of CFCs, they also help prevent the incidental CO2 emissions. Currently most electric power is generated by burning hydrocarbons, which contribute heavily to the global warming scenario,” he concludes.