A long way to go

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PVs may be unable to reach 1% of global capacity in the near future.

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Burma Teak marble waiting for installation in Dubai’s Monarch Hotel.

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Concrete is most valuable as an infrastructure or aggregate material.

Architect outlines the realities of renewable building products and technologies in the Gulf.

The International Energy Group (IEG) is an international alliance of organizations created in 2008 to research advanced energy technologies in the GCC.

A division of the international investment arm of SS Lootah Group in Dubai, IEG enjoys strategic partnerships with Fraunhofer, a leading European think-tank and R&D organisation, and the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations (WAITRO).

The mandate of the IEG is simple: It aims to promote, develop and manage projects that can integrate and demonstrate clean/renewable energy in commercially viable ways.

According to the first official IEG report entitled ‘Future Energy Scenarios', the UAE has a power generation capacity of approximately 16GW. That number has doubled since 2000, increased a further 15% in the last two years and is projected to increase to 26GW sometime in 2010.

The UAE (and several other GCC nations) continues to subsidise electricity for its residents and, to further complicate matters, two of the largest energy-consuming industries in the world - aluminium smelting and petrochemical production - are the veritable bread and butter of the Gulf nation.

It is a fact that buildings consume approximately 70% of the world's total electricity, 40% of total energy and 40% of raw materials and, in doing so, produce an estimated 30% of all global greenhouse gas (identified as methane, CO2, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases). These numbers even outweigh the amounts of greenhouse gas produced by deforestation, automobiles and livestock rearing.

In a kind of ‘Part II' to this issue's earlier feature ‘Renewed Hope', Architect examines the technologies and building materials that should continue to be used in the region and some that, given the current climate and energy requirements, perhaps should be considered.

Timber

Every year the world's forests deliver up over 1.5 billion tonnes of timber for milling and industrial processing, not to mention, supplying fuel for about half its population. Because trees absorb carbon dioxide, if sourced sustainably, timber is the only building material available that boasts a positive rather than negative impact on the earth's greenhouse gasses.

As a building material, timber offers a warmth and texture that is uniquely malleable as well as renewable and bio-degradable. That said, there are challenges to using it in this region. First, it's a building material that is not historically associated with aesthetic beauty in the region. Second, timber is not a local material so it comes with significant embodied energy. Third, the weakening effects of the hot climate.

Jim Meyers, Middle East Manager of Calvert Company Inc., the US-based glued laminated timber manufacturer, assures consumers that timber doesn't buckle, warp or break under the stress of region's high temperature.

Citing several of Calvert's successful installations in Dubai Marina and Madinat Jumeirah, Meyers insists timber's bad rap comes from poor preservation rather than inherent weaknesses in the material.

Dimension Stone

Although a variety of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks can be used as building materials, the principal rock types throughout the industry are granite, limestone, marble, travertine, sandstone and slate.

Natural stones that can be selected, fabricated and polished to specific sizes, shapes and aesthetic qualities, dimension stone enjoys a very high profile in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, several critics in the industry are quick to point out that the highest quality stone in this region comes straight from the best veins in Europe and Asia. Again, we run into an embodied energy surplus for a building material that is most likely going to be used on inside.

Burmese Teak graces Dubai's Monarch Hotel, Mall of the Emirates boasts tiger-eyed marble flooring and the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) features marble floors and columns. Marble in particular is being used so much in the region's residential projects that one firm attests that 90% of its clients request large-scale marble applications.

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