Energy security and energy transition – a delicate balancing and rewarding act for the MENA region

At the recently concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, energy security was front and center - a priority for all countries, those resource-rich and resource-poor alike. In parallel, energy transition continued to be a global priority, with urgent calls to accelerate the path towards cleaner and more affordable energy, heightened by the current global macro-economic environment.

How can we reconcile these two trends and support the MENA region on its firm trajectory towards a net zero future?

It can be argued that the current energy market offers an ideal opportunity to balance these two forces and secure uninterrupted, clean and reliable power by adopting a short-term and long-term view to energy transition, where diversification of energy sources plays an essential role. 

There is general consensus that key decarbonisation technology pathways will drive energy transition between now and 2050. These include energy efficiency, renewables, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCUS), hydrogen and electrification.   These technologies together work as building blocks of a diversified energy transition ecosystem that meets environmental goals while ensuring grid stability and uninterrupted power. 

Ramping up their deployment will be vital to achieve the region’s decarbonisation goals. This is feasible as the technologies that will drive most of the reductions in CO2 emissions through 2030 already exist today.

Energy efficiency, known as the ‘first fuel’, as it’s considered the most cost effective way today to meet energy needs, will continue to play an essential role in the energy transition, on the supply and demand side. On the supply side, this means increasingly higher efficiency power generation that burns cleaner with fuels such hydrogen and consumes less fuel, while reducing its carbon emissions.  

To this end, the region has focused on the use of advanced, cleaner and higher-efficiency power generation technology, such as the one Mitsubishi Power is providing for the UAE’s largest natural gas fired GTCC power plant, located in Fujairah.  Our industry-leading JAC turbines, which have an efficiency of over 64 percent, the highest in the world, are adding 2,400-megawatt of power to power the growth of the Emirate of Fujairah in the UAE.  

Efficiency is pivotal in energy-intensive industries that are the cornerstone of the region’ industrial growth, such as steel and aluminium. To this end, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the world’s largest aluminium smelter ex-China, recently announced its adoption of Mitsubishi Power’s industry-leading gas turbine technology to increase the capacity of Power Station 5 Block 4, and continue to secure highly efficient and reliable power at the smelter, a significant contributor to the economic growth and development of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Alongside being highly efficient, the advanced gas power generation technology integrates well with renewable energy, as it also provides the flexibility to rapidly ramp up and down on power needed, based on baseload and on renewable powered or stored energy. Flexibility will be further optimised through advanced intelligent systems that are creating the smart power plant of the future, such as Mitsubishi Power’s TOMONI AI and augmented reality integrated solutions, that enable the construction and operation of a fully autonomous power plant.­­

Another energy transition technology is carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS). This technology is no stranger to countries in the region with developed oil and gas industry industries. The UAE already has one of the largest CCUS projects globally - its Al Reyadah facility captures around 800,000 MT/year of CO₂, used mainly for enhanced oil recovery.

In recent years, there has been a growing momentum behind CCUS technology, driven by climate goals and enabling policy. Alongside removing carbon from the atmosphere, CCUS is a critical contributor to the energy transition in reducing emissions within existing energy infrastructure, through retrofitting it to existing power and industrial plants. It is also a key solution in hard-to-abate industrial sectors such as aluminium.  To this end, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is working with Alba in Bahrain on a CCUS project that is assessing the feasibility of applying CCUS at the aluminium smelter, which will be the first application of CO₂ capture technologies in the aluminium industry, when realized.

Hydrogen, also called the ‘transition fuel’, is the cleanest burning fuel today and has emerged at the forefront of the carbon transition roadmap. The energy industry is rapidly advancing the adoption of hydrogen-fired gas turbines.  At Mitsubishi Power, our JAC gas turbines are capable of using up to 30 percent hydrogen fuel by volume today, to reach 100 percent hydrogen fuel by 2025.  

Commercialising hydrogen is now a global priority, to scale its use. Companies such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) are fast-tracking this process through projects such as the recently announced Takasago Hydrogen Park, the world's first center for the validation of hydrogen-related technologies, from hydrogen production to power generation,  which will support the commercialization of small and large frame gas turbines. In fact, our company is building a value chain for hydrogen, from production to use, through further integration and advancement of the existing energy infrastructure and hydrogen-related technologies. By further developing this approach and linking it with many different types of hydrogen-centric industries, MHI aims to establish a hydrogen ecosystem that will accelerate its commercialization through verification at the Takasago Hydrogen Park.  

The transition to hydrogen-capable gas turbines can be done with minimal existing infrastructure modification, thereby enabling power producers to manage their costs while meeting environmental standards and their own net zero ambitions.

When it comes to our region specifically, with its abundant sunshine and the affordable cost of renewable technology today, there is much opportunity for a green hydrogen industry sector to flourish in the Middle East, and for the region to become a leading producer of green hydrogen.

In this regard, Mitsubishi Power can be a valuable partner – in 2020, it introduced the world’s first standard packages for green hydrogen integration. Benefits include providing renewable energy flexibility by acting as a near-instantaneous power balancing resource that greatly enhances the ability of a simple cycle or combined cycle power plant to ramp output up and down to provide grid balancing services. The package integrates a hydrogen and natural gas fueled gas turbine power plant with electrolysis to produce green hydrogen using 100 percent renewable power and onsite storage of green hydrogen. This solution can help to ensure reliability of supply, which is essential for grid operations.  

The existence of these decarbonisation technologies, to be deployed at scale and at competitive costs, while complementing the existing energy infrastructure, will provide strong grounds for a secure energy supply ecosystem, ultimately unlocking energy transition.

In the MENA region, we are witnessing these trends, supported by an enabling public policy and the widespread adoption of and deployment of these energy decarbonisation technologies at scale to enable the region not only to meet its net zero targets but also to leapfrog many other regions of the world.

This will require strong collaboration and collective action between business, governments, industry, community, and capital markets. 

There is no better time than today to converge efforts and accelerate energy transition, where energy availability, reliability and affordability are more important than ever to energy security.  

And the benefits our region will reap will extend beyond energy security as clean energy transition and energy sector transformation are recognized as major drivers of economic growth, as was recently acknowledged at the International Energy Agency’s 2022 Ministerial Meeting of global energy leaders.