POWER July 2014 - 39

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
bilateral negotiations and contracts and allow
countries to request bulk electricity and
advertise spare capacity at the same time.
The GCCIA ultimately wants to establish a
wholesale and spot-priced market in the GCC
and beyond, though GCCIA Chief Operating
Officer Ahmed Ali Al-Ebrahim acknowledges
several hurdles must first be overcome.
Perhaps its greatest challenge, though:
The GCC must orchestrate a policy shift
away from electricity subsidies in the region.
Subsidies on power and natural gas produced
obstruct a proper electricity market from
forming in the GCC, because true prices of
both are unknown. Until GCC countries can
address the political and economic issues that
inhibit price-reflective electricity markets,
the full potential of the GCC interconnection
grid will be left untapped, he said.
Water Woes
For the drought-prone Middle East, where
average rainfall ranges between 20 and 40
cm per year (compared to 72 cm globally),
water scarcity is a paramount concern. The
region hosts about 5% of the world's population
but only 1% of its renewable water resources,
most of which is in transboundary
basins such as the Euphrates and Tigris River
Basins (shared by Syria, Iraq, and Iran) and
the Jordan River Basin System (Jordan, Palestine,
and Israel). As a result, almost all of
the region's water resources are overexploited
and severely polluted, leading to saltwater
intrusion in the aquifers and subsequent lowering
of water tables. Meanwhile, population
and economic growth are expected to further
catapult water demand-which, compounded
by adverse climate change effects, could set
the stage for conflict.
Some initiatives entail regional collaboration
on water and electricity. The oil-rich
countries on the Arabian Peninsula, specifically,
are tackling the problem with large desalination
schemes to help alleviate water
stress. Desalination is costly and energy intensive,
with energy costs accounting for up
to 50% of operation costs. According to the
Pacific Institute, desalination plants generally
require 15 MWh for every million gallons
of freshwater produced. Still, the process has
been practiced for more than 50 years in the
region (Figure 2) and emerged as the most
feasible solution for some countries.
The International Desalination Association
(IDA) reports that more than half of the
world's capacity growth between 2001 and
2011-276%, rising to 6.7 billion cubic meters
a day (m3
/d)-took place in the Middle
East. The region's desalination efforts are
characterized by three main methods differing
in terms of energy consumption and cost,
and whether they can be used for seawater
July 2014 | POWER
2. Rendering water. The desalination facility at Kuwait's 300-MW gas-fired Shuwaikh
power plant in the Arabian Gulf region went into operation in the 1950s. The plant's efficiency
was recently improved by up to 15% with the overhaul of three blocks. The country's population
hit three million in 2010 and is expected to be 5.5 million in 2025. While its only renewable
water comes from wells, per capita water consumption is 110 gallons per day, almost double
the international rate. Courtesy: Bilfinger Engineering and Services
or brackish water treatment. Multistage flash
and multi-effect distillation are distillationbased
methods that are generally preferred
because they support cogeneration of water
and power. The third, more energy-efficient
method-reverse osmosis (RO)-uses membranes
to separate salts from water. But
though membrane technology and energy
recovery have improved markedly since the
1960s, and RO today makes up the bulk of
worldwide desalination capacity, energy consumption
still accounts for about 40% of operation
costs.
The region's recent shift to promote sustainability
encapsulates the water and energy
nexus (see also " The Water-Energy Nexus
Takes Center Stage " in this issue). Experts
posit that Saudi Arabia's water use is seven
times its sustainable level, while the UAE
uses 15 times its sustainable level, and Kuwait
more than 20. Meanwhile, several leaders are
actively backing projects that shift from fueling
desalination efforts with oil (and, less
frequently, natural gas) and toward concentrated
solar power and other renewables-
even though some experts are unconvinced
renewables can match the high-energy footprint
needed for desalination.
As the largest desalination producer in
the world, Saudi Arabia's efforts to produce
more than 4 million m3
/d (representing 18%
of global production), for example, require
roughly 300,000 barrels of oil per day. The
kingdom in December announced it would
build the world's largest solar-powered desalination
plant in Al-Khafji Governorate on
www.powermag.com
the Arabian Gulf Coast that will have the capacity
to produce 30,000 m3
/d and 2.5 GW of
power via ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic
cells when completed. That RO project
is only the first phase of the King Abdullah
Initiative for Solar Water Desalination that
requires all seawater desalination in the kingdom
to be powered completely by solar by
2020. The second phase entails a 300,000
m3
/d solar-powered desalination plant; a third
phase implements the initiative throughout
the kingdom.
Finally, with 120 desalination plants operating
in the region and more water required
to fuel the energy boom and vice versa, some
experts express trepidation about the possible
environmental consequences from release of
so much brine back into the oceans. Then
there are concerns about greenhouse gas
emissions from the intense amount of energy
required for the process.
But the solutions here too are standard.
Two levels of actions require urgent attention
to achieve a lower energy footprint, says
Middle East expert and former IDA President
Dr. Corrado Sommariva. " The first one is the
creation of policies that encourage energy
efficiency, providing a realistic price for energy
even in oil-rich countries and rewarding
energy efficiency. On the technical level, it
is necessary to educate managers and plant
operators on how to operate plants in a much
more energy efficient manner with relatively
few changes. " ■
-Sonal Patel is a POWER associate editor
(@POWERmagazine, @sonalcpatel).
39
http://www.powermag.com

POWER July 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER July 2014

Contents
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POWER July 2014 - Contents
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