WETEX 2012: Executive summary of 14th show outing

Ducab's stand clebrated the UAE's anniversary in a cable-tastic fashion.
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The 14th Water, Energy, & Environment Exhibition 2012 (WETEX) electrified the Middle East’s utilities professionals in March. 

After the opening ceremony with HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, top officials accompanied by HE Matar Humaid Al Tayer, Chairman of DEWA, and HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and MD and CEO of DEWA, explored the Exhibition and viewed the displays and equipment being showcased by companies from 28 countries from over the world participating in the Exhibition. The exhibition attracted 1,055 companies.

His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum praised DEWA and the significant developments it has made for all its facilities in addition to the excellent services DEWA provides, which has made it one of the best utilities in the world.

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The opening ceremony was attended by HE Mattar Humaid Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board of DEWA, and HE Fahad Al Muhannadi, Manging Director of the Qatar Electricity and Water Corporation.

“WETEX attracts cutting-edge technologies and major international companies to Dubai. This enhances Dubai’s position as the preferred regional hub for finance, trade and business.

The number of companies and organizations participating in this year’s Exhibition reached 1,055 in comparison with 715 in last year’s Exhibition,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA.

“This year’s Exhibition focused on the environment by following up on the UAE’s progress and continuous efforts to conserve resources and protect the environment. The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is one of our pioneering projects to generate electricity from solar energy, and will have a production capacity of 1,000 Megawatts.

This model of the park is on display at the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy booth, and forms the foundation and benchmark for our strategy to utilize clean and renewable energy, which plays an important role in our sustainable development.

The Dubai Supreme Council of Energy will present the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, as new sources of energy will be provided and, consequently, shares of different sources of energy will be changed to 71 % gas and the remaining 29 % comprising nuclear energy, coal and renewable sources of energy. In this way, electricity from solar energy will constitute 5% of our electricity needs in 2030,” His Excellency added.

“The participation of fossil fuel, including oil, gas and related activities, in this year’s Exhibition is of significant importance as fossil fuels are one of the sources of energy used at on a wide scale. Therefore, the Exhibition has become integrated and includes different sources of energy,” His Excellency pointed out.

The Exhibition includes a list of major national and international companies, whose displays include a lot of products; such as agricultural equipment, desalination systems, modern systems of irrigation, water pumping equipment, boilers, cables, electrical transformers, connectors, energy saving products, pipes, valves, generators, electricity- and water-transmission and distribution equipment, and other modern equipment.

Shell used its presence at WETEX 2012 to raise awareness of the need to use less and emit less, in addition to finding innovative replacements for carbon-based liquid fuels by providing customers with fuel and lubricant solutions that promise to save on energy, cost and the environment.

Speaking in one of the keynots conference sessions, Belinda Perriman, Upstream Commercial Manager for Shell in the UAE, said “Climate change is a major challenge affecting the whole world. The related challenge in the UAE and wider GCC is to meet the growing local demand for energy with lower emissions.

Increased exploration and development of indigenous gas, which is the cleanest burning fossil fuel, will reduce the burning of valuable higher carbon liquid fuels, such as diesel and fuel-oil, for power.” Along these lines, Shell is pioneering Gas to Liquid (GTL) fuel solutions using the world’s largest gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar, which it built in partnership with Qatar Petroleum.

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