We have become better at using energy. Isn't that surprising? Yet World Bank data shows that globally we are getting more economic productivity out of less and less oil. Since the data started being tracked in 1990, our efficiency has improved continuously. Unfortunately, despite these gains, each person’s average energy consumption has gone up about 15 per cent between 1990 and 2014. And in that time, the global population has ballooned to include 3 billion more people.
After a brief hiatus, global energy consumption has surged past pre-pandemic levels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. And more money than ever is being pumped in oil from tar sands and in fracking. Have we lost sight of the larger need to decarbonise our economies now that the price of oil is up, production and travel have resumed and we’re in recovery overdrive?
The ultimate decentralised energy scenario will generate clean energy, for any use, at the exact location of the users.
Decarbonising is not just a nice thing to do, it’s an imperative. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) came as close as an organisation of its kind will come to describing a slow-motion train wreck if we do not act decisively and now on climate. When current crises are resolved and new high-urgency ones appear, climate change still looms large and races toward us from a future that is closing in rapidly. Not least because the World Meteorological Organisation warns us that the 1.5ºC increase will likely be a reality in the next five years.
Despite the viral and geopolitical turmoil we are witnessing, I do see indications that a transition is afoot. And a key word in the transition is one plucked from the zeitgeist: decentralised.
I’m not thinking of cryptocurrencies, blockchain or the metaverse, or any other current digital experiments. With the relentless advance of science and the resulting technologies, we will see the fundamental shift from location-bound to remote technology-enabled energy. This is what the Dubai Future Foundation has forecast, following a deep look into what we dubbed "50 Global Opportunities", a report we published earlier this year.
The point of decentralised energy is that it does not come from a specific spot on the map. This kind of energy can be available to anyone, anywhere.
Right now, any hydrocarbon energy source is tied to a physical location – a well in this case – and crude oil is shipped by the barrel around the world. Because sources of hydrocarbon energy are concentrated in pockets across the planet, this type of energy is centralised.
A decentralised energy future is tied to technology. But you can understand one of the earliest and crudest forms of decentralised energy by thinking of human's first foray into the energy industry: fire. That simple wood-powered fire provides warmth for our bodies and heat for cooking and basic industrial processes. It’s a semi-decentralised power source because it still depends on natural resources such as wood, but at the dawn of civilisation that was likely not a limiting factor.
A windmill, too, provides semi-decentralised energy, though it does require some cooperation from nature, for wind to power it. A 20th century early technology-centered power source is nuclear fission. Nuclear reactors run on uranium, a commonly found metal, and in 2021 some 36 countries operated nuclear power stations generating a tenth of the world’s energy needs. Harnessing the power of technology means it can be deployed anywhere, a bit like the internet. More recently, solar energy-harvesting photovoltaic cells have become the poster child of the sustainable energy revolution.
The ultimate decentralised energy scenario will generate clean energy, for any use, at the exact location of the users.
There are at least three technologies that could be the agents of our decentralised future. First, small modular nuclear reactors, or even micro-scale reactors, which eventually could run on the waste of large scale nuclear facilities. Part of an ongoing trend of Silicon Valley-supplied tech solutions to vexing problems, start-ups have appeared to provide such micro-nuclear installations. But don’t forget: it's not plug-and-play and setbacks are part of progress. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied Oklo, a nuclear energy start-up out of Silicon Valley, the license to build its fast reactor. Surely they will be bouncing back, not least due to the growing urge of countries to be energy self-sufficient.
Second, nuclear fusion, that holy grail of energy sources, has been a distant dream for over five decades, yet some claim that container-sized units could be viable in the next five to ten years.
Third, hydrogen production is also going to be part of this energy-technology complex as a future clean energy source thanks to solar or fusion energy.
Technology-enabled decentralisation of clean energy generation is an important next step in our evolution. Decentralisation can also be an important element in reducing volatility, hedging against shocks and ensuring continuity. Much like Aribnb is the world’s biggest “hotel brand” but owns no property, there will be a time when modular, decentralised clean energy production will surpass the energy supplied by the traditional providers.
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
The biog
Born: Kuwait in 1986
Family: She is the youngest of seven siblings
Time in the UAE: 10 years
Hobbies: audiobooks and fitness: she works out every day, enjoying kickboxing and basketball
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
Mountain%20Boy
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
West Asia Premiership
Dubai Hurricanes 58-10 Dubai Knights Eagles
Dubai Tigers 5-39 Bahrain
Jebel Ali Dragons 16-56 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
What is Reform?
Reform is a right-wing, populist party led by Nigel Farage, a former MEP who won a seat in the House of Commons last year at his eighth attempt and a prominent figure in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union.
It was founded in 2018 and originally called the Brexit Party.
Many of its members previously belonged to UKIP or the mainstream Conservatives.
After Brexit took place, the party focused on the reformation of British democracy.
Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson became its first MP after defecting in March 2024.
The party gained support from Elon Musk, and had hoped the tech billionaire would make a £100m donation. However, Mr Musk changed his mind and called for Mr Farage to step down as leader in a row involving the US tycoon's support for far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson who is in prison for contempt of court.
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
How it works
1) The liquid nanoclay is a mixture of water and clay that aims to convert desert land to fertile ground
2) Instead of water draining straight through the sand, it apparently helps the soil retain water
3) One application is said to last five years
4) The cost of treatment per hectare (2.4 acres) of desert varies from $7,000 to $10,000 per hectare
Naga
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Know your camel milk:
Flavour: Similar to goat’s milk, although less pungent. Vaguely sweet with a subtle, salty aftertaste.
Texture: Smooth and creamy, with a slightly thinner consistency than cow’s milk.
Use it: In your morning coffee, to add flavour to homemade ice cream and milk-heavy desserts, smoothies, spiced camel-milk hot chocolate.
Goes well with: chocolate and caramel, saffron, cardamom and cloves. Also works well with honey and dates.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The fake news generation
288,000 – the number of posts reported as hate speech that were deleted by Facebook globally each month in May and June this year
11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general
31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate
63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
