Enviromena Capitalises on Solar Energy Market in UAE

ABU DHABI - To help meet the Abu Dhabi government’s pledge on Monday to draw seven per cent of its energy resources from renewable methods, Enviromena will build a 10 megawatt solar energy plant in the Emirate.

Published: Wed 21 Jan 2009, 12:13 AM

Last updated: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 9:37 PM

Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s energy company, estimated that the market created by Abu Dhabi’s pledge will be worth $6-8 billion by 2020. “From our perspective, what that means is a whole new opportunity,” said Sami Khoreibi, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Enviromena.

The Abu Dhabi solar power plant will Enviromena’s flagship project, but Khoreibi said the company is working on agreements for several others in North Africa and Jordan. “The whole landscape is changing so quickly just from a single announced implementation,” Khoreibi said.

Because of the naturally dry and sunny climate in the Middle East, he estimated that solar energy will make up the largest percentage of renewable energy in the region.

Enviromena was one of 132 solar energy companies exhibiting at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. According to a statement by summit organisers five companies which account for 40 per cent of the global solar photovoltaic cells, the technology that converts sunlight into electricity, attended the conference.

The Abu Dhabi plant will provide 17,500 MWh of clean energy each year, saving 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

In the 15 months since its inception, the company has grown from six to twenty-four employees and been recognized as a carbon neutral company.

Enviromena is currently a privately funded company with investors from Switzerland, Canada, the UAE and the US, but Khoreivi said he has hopes for becoming a publicly listed company.

“We want Enviromena here on a Gulf-based exchange as an Abu Dhabi based company,” he said. “We want to be the first entity people can invest in for clean technology.”

The company does not have a specific timeline yet for public listing, and Khoreibi, voiced the undertones of concern at the conference on Monday. “We’ll wait and see. The exchange market place is not one in which anybody wants to be raising funds,” he said.

· emily@khaleejtimes.com