Engineers Head to Middle East for World Future Energy Summit

Students Go Far For New Energy Solution
By Steve Gershman

Eight members of the Tufts community have recently returned from a research trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sponsored by the Tufts Energy Security Initiative (ESI). The trip, spanning from this January 14 to January 24th, took the students to Abu Dhabi and Dubai for the first annual World Future Energy Summit (WFES).

Members of Tufts' Energy Security Initiative talk with Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), the company executing the Masdar Initiative.

The Tufts representatives were one of only four college delegations admitted to the symposium. They were the only undergraduate students at a conference that included over 11,000 people, 230 companies, and 230 media outlets. A few of the esteemed guests included top energy officials from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Kuwait, the UAE, and Morocco, the CEO of MASDAR, the President of Iceland and, via hologram, the future King of England.

In his home country, Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan opened the conference by pledging the largest single investment ever in the future of energy: fifteen billion dollars. British Petroleum, an oil company revealed plans for a two billion dollar hydrogen plant while its former CEO, Lord Brown, discussed the past and current energy markets. The Tufts delegation was fortunate enough to have the privilege to address the conference. Seniors Jesse Gossett and Alex Wright made a thirty minute presentation to the audience on the role of universities in improvement and implementation of renewable energy. Jesse and Alex discussed how universities are unique places in the energy sector because they incubate technologies and offer the market a place to test technologies in a controlled environment. They also talked more about the specific energy advances that Tufts students have made and the methods the university has used to incorporate renewable energy into society. They suggested that Tufts can serve as an initiating, uniting force for various communities, on campus, in Massachusetts and around the world.

This issue is strikes close to home in Abu Dhabi. The country is home to the Masdar Initiative, an endeavor paralleling the Manhattan Project in ambition. The Initiative involves the non-profit Masdar Institute, which is currently under construction; it will become a state of the art graduate school for renewable energy-focused science and engineering students. The company has invested of over $250 million into clean energy technology, start-up companies, and global companies whose products adhere to the ideals of the UAE. In addition, the vanguard of the Initiative is an entirely new city being constructed in the middle of an Abu Dhabi desert. Entitled Masdar City, the metropolis will be entirely solar-powered with zero-waste and zero-carbon ecology, as well as sustainable transport, materials, food, and water. The self-sustained city is meant to model the viable potential for more alternative energy environments while also exemplifying the productive manners in which other countries can use oil profits to improve their societies and ensure growth through diversification.

In their study of Abu Dhabi and the WFES, the Tufts students focused on three main areas of energy policy. Prior to the trip, they wrote papers outlining their intended research and their objectives for the trip; they are currently in the process of writing more thorough papers of their findings. The first topic of examination, studied by Jared Rodriguez, Jayson Uppal, Jacob Mandel and Jesse Gossett, was a direct comparison between the United States’ approach to energy development and that of the UAE. The second, investigated by Daniel Enking and Renee Birenbaum, dealt with the affect of both oil and renewable energy on the UAE. They also analyzed the effect a global change from fossil fuels to renewable energy would have on the country. The third topic, examined by Alex Wright and David Mou, explored the shift toward renewable energy from the perspective of the UAE government, concentrating on the motivations behind its heavy investments in new forms of energy despite the country's energy abundance.

Once in Abu Dhabi, the group met first with Mr. Ali bin Towaih, the executive director of EnPark. EnPark is a New Urbanist development model focused on energy efficiency in both residential and commercial construction. The company’s archetype hopes to become the new standard of living in Abu Dhabi. Next, the students visited a member of the Executive Council of Dubai, Walid Tabanji, who expanded bin Towaih’s concept of UAE developmental success by discussing the UAE’s foreign policy and tourism stances. On the floor of the WFES, several students had the opportunity to talk briefly with Sam Bodman, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, as well as Dr. Sultan Jabar, the leader of the company responsible for the Masdar Initiative, which includes Masdar City and the Masdar Institute.

To learn about the latest recycling technology, the group met with one of Time Magazine’s “Heroes of the Planet,” William McDonough. They discussed a shared hope to design products practically so that they can be recycled into their original states without waste. He reevaluates the world from the standpoint of design, and introduced the students to his ideas for solving the energy crisis. For example, Mr. McDonough worked with Nike to design a shoe sole that is not only biodegradable, but also feeds plants when the shoe wears down. From a design perspective, reevaluating the products people use when they work and travel reestablishes how all of these aspects of people’s daily lives have an impact on the environment.

The group came to many conclusions regarding their research topics. One general conclusion the students made is that because the UAE is a monarchy, the country has a planned economy and can implement changes to its infrastructure with less friction than there would be in a more open society. The country is also exceedingly wealthy which allows them to invest large amounts of resources into the future of energy. Due to the theory of “peak oil,” which postulates that 50 percent of the world’s oil will have been extracted by the end of the next 10 years, the government of the UAE is looking for a long-term solution to the energy crisis. Since a large part of the UAE’s income is derived from its oil wealth, when its oil resources are exhausted it will have few significant sources of income. Consequently, the UAE is racing to diversify. It is actively seeking a leadership position in the emerging alternative energy industry and hopes to profit off of their exclusive rights to the next form of energy.

The research trip to Abu Dhabi and the group’s attendance at the WFES embody the goal of the ESI, a program run by Tufts’ Institute for Global Leadership (IGL). The IGL founded the Energy Security Initiative two years ago in response to the success of that year’s EPIIC class in the EX College that concentrated on “Oil and Water.” Since its inception, the group has grown both in personnel and reputation, while simultaneously bringing recognition to Tufts. The Initiative has previously researched renewable energy throughout the world, starting in Germany with an exploration on solar energy, and since then traveling to Colorado, Washington D.C., Brussels, the Netherlands, and most recently, to the UAE. In addition to the ESI’s goal of giving Tufts students new perspectives on energy, the group seeks to incite interest in working in the constantly expanding energy industry.

One of the students, Jesse Gossett, encompasses much of the emotions and outlooks on the energy crisis the world faces. In reference to BP’s Executive Vice President, he remarked, “we just wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her and tell her to save the world. The [people we met with] may not seem to agree with every idea and ideal that we hold and they may not have the same sense of urgency, but they are incredibly intelligent people who have the possibility of being a savior of the world. It’s hard to wrap our brains around why we can’t all be on the same page.” Through the trip to Abu Dhabi the students have created a lasting partnership with many renowned energy companies and figureheads with whom Tufts University hopes to continue developing ties. The ESI plans to continue events such as the WFES and send more ESI researchers in the coming years. In the meantime students like Jesse can share their newly acquired knowledge of renewable energy and pursue the goals of the ESI by spreading awareness.