Emirati students camp out in Iceland to research solar potential in UAE

The group researched new practices in sustainable energy in Iceland that could be applied in the UAE

مدرج من قبل: عائشة محمد راشد الرميثي

A group of Emirati students spent two days camping in Iceland without electricity while researching ways to implement solar energy practices in the UAE

Eleven Emirati students self-funded a trip to Iceland - a country where 85 per cent of all houses use geothermal energy and almost 100 per cent of electricity is generated through renewables – to learn how the country harnesses its resources into clean energy

“It’s a good destination for clean energy,” said Aysha AlRumaithi, a 22-year-old graduate in sustainable and renewable energy from the University of Sharjah. “We learnt about their energy policies, history and their landscape while on a two-day camping trip without electricity”

The group worked on two projects following the United Nations’ pillars of sustainable development, as part of the US-based Green Programme which has sustainability initiatives around the world. “We worked on a solar consultation company for the UAE,” she said. “It opened my eyes on a country that doesn’t use any fossil fuels and it’s one of the greenest countries in the world”

As geothermal and hydropower are not available in the UAE, the students settled on solar as a viable contributor to the UAE’s renewable energy future

“I learnt how to harness the resources we have,” said Tawaddod AlKindi, a master’s student in material science and engineering at Masdar. “We thought about working on private properties in the UAE that are unused and see what resources they have like solar or organic waste and come up with suitable plans for them. We can do a lot here with solar energy and organic and agricultural waste so we did an analysis and it’s feasible for people to start selling energy in the UAE”