While Abu Dhabi has been supplying power and water to the northern emirates and Sharjah at a rapidly increasing rate over the past decade, the move to unify production and supply across Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates marks a sharp break from the past – when planning and procurement of new capacity remained under the control of each utility. With almost 9GW of baseload nuclear and intermittent solar power set to come online in the next four years, integrated planning and delivery from Ewec will be crucial to ensuring that electricity and water are produced in an efficient manner.

Learn how this new reality is coming together and what it will mean for you and your industry. It’s the first step towards the ‘Mars 2117’ project, but there is a chasmic difference between a simulation centre and a city on a different planet. Just a few months later, the MBRSC announced a $140m simulation project in the desert. Space scientists do not even know if humans can survive the journey to Mars, considering the sun’s deadly cosmic rays, the radiation, and the perilous decline in astronauts’ bone and muscle density.Architect Ingels insists success is “inevitable” and it’s just a question of perspective. Arguably the most significant reform is the creation of the Emirates Water & Electricity Corporation (Ewec), a new public shareholding entity established to unify production and supply of power and water across Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates.Ewec will not only replace Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Company (Adwec) as the off-taker for utilities in Abu Dhabi but will also assume responsibility for buying and selling electricity and water production from Federal Electricity Company (Fewa), the northern emirates’ state utility. Dozens of teenagers crowded into a recent event organised by the MBRSC, where they took part in workshops on the Hope Probe. Despite the importance of hydrocarbons in this strategy, it also has a clear eye towards the day when those hydrocarbons are no longer the world’s dominant energy source. By introducing those renewables, they see the benefits of it and they continue and grow on a commercial level.There is a risk, but there is hope as well. She was previously a senior policy reporter at Politico Europe and a reporter and editor at Interfax Energy. And how do the UAE’s sustainable ambitions relate to the country’s long-term goals of economic diversification and technological advancement? If the oil prices go down, you have a push. However, regardless of its abundance of oil, the UAE is investing heavily in renewable energy and hopes to diversify its power generation mixture, primarily towards renewable sources, by 2050.The question is, does this project represent an environmentally progressive plan, an attempt to maximize hydrocarbon revenues, or a mixture of both? “It is very often thought that if we have a space programme then we will have better engineers, but if you look at countries that do have space programmes, they had good scientists and then they went into space.”The UAE is making fast work of advancing its space knowhow. Perhaps one day a Virgin Galactic spacecraft could leave Al Ain Airport to take you on holiday to Mars.Dubai’s Emirates to increase passenger services to Pakistan from August 10Kuwaiti MPs reject draft law allowing private sector firms to cut salaries by up to 50%What is the current state of the UAE’s startup ecosystem?

The UAE’s rulers were speaking to some of the world’s most powerful leaders and deep-thinkers, and they were serious. And I hope he will do it better than me.”Knowledge transfer has always been a key strategy of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), which is the nerve centre of the UAE’s space activity. Follow the company to be always up to date with this companyOTN Systems is a global leader in inspiring people to design their communications network with the latest technologies. Determann thinks it is possible, but with a caveat.

“Five hundred years ago when [the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand] Magellan circumnavigated the globe for the first time, it took him three years…. Deals like this boost the UAE’s position in the space race, and the country is ready to invest major sums of money in bold innovations. I think it’s important to be public, to be vocal, clear and direct,” he said. But in your country, you will always deliver what makes sense from an affordability point of view — the cheapest and the most sustainable. “I learned a lot during those eight days,” he said, looking fresh and fit after his extraordinary mission. While the benefits of a cross-emirates utility provider has long been preached by many involved in delivering power and water in the UAE, the move towards renewable energy and the decoupling of power and water have made the case for a unified approach much stronger. Other regional players have already developed popular satellite news channels, which the UAE might want to replicate using its own network of orbiting craft.But the biggest driver behind the UAE’s $6bn investment in space is economic diversification. One way to accelerate this is by developing other pillars to seize the current momentum and the joint security interests with the UAE by showing some advancement in the Palestinian arena. Large projects like Masdar City, a carbon-neutral city, and the Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park draw international attention to the UAE and highlight its progress. If you have more gas, you can sell it, if there’s a market for it. “Dubai has, more than any other government, committed the resources to focus on speculating and inventing, and making the future happen.”The UAE’s media office says the plan is to create a “viable and realistic model to simulate living the surface of Mars”.Ingels explains, “We will use the same techniques as we’re currently anticipating we will be needing in order to build a city on Mars. The UAE government does not levy income tax although there is a system of corporate tax in place and Value Added Tax at 5% was ... Our system of government is based upon our religion and that is what our people want. I think a target of 40, 50 or 60 percent by 2050 is reasonable.A social enterprise, we connect and inform 1,012,000+ development, health, humanitarian, and sustainability professionals through news, business intelligence, and funding & career opportunities so you can do more good for more people. Bjarke Ingels believes the UAE is leading the world.