At present the piloted website features six products including a solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop kit costing from Dh15,200 to just under Dh160,000. Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
At present the piloted website features six products including a solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop kit costing from Dh15,200 to just under Dh160,000. Kevin Frayer / Getty Images

Dubai Government crowdsourcing platform set to drive down solar energy costs



The Dubai Government is to launch a crowdsourcing platform to let residents and businesses pool their resources and drive down prices for energy- and water-efficiency goods and services.

The Green Deal Dubai, akin to other e-commerce sites, will be the first platform in the region geared towards providing consumers and small businesses with economies of scale.

The initiative of the Dubai Green Economy Partnership will be officially announced next month at the World Green Economy Summit. This follows the launch last year of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s Shams Dubai initiative to feed solar energy from homes and businesses into the electricity grid.

Ivano Iannelli, the chief executive of centre of excellence Dubai Carbon, said the platform was a response to financial obstacles that were holding back the take-up of the residential solar rooftop scheme. A main financial problem was the obli­gatory cost of hiring a consultancy, which is required to sign off on the project before government approval.

Mr Iannelli offered up his home in Arabian Ranches as a sort of testing ground last year to identify problems, installing a 5.27 kilowatt solar system to power his home – that excluded the air conditioning.

“The market is just ahead of its maturity curve, meaning that we don’t have enough providers that are cost-effective,” he said. “The cost of hiring this consultant to sign off on the drawing [of my home] was equal to the cost of the actual solar system at around Dh20,000.”

And with the Green Deal platform, the idea is that more companies and residents will collaborate to make a larger community, which ultimately drives down costs for the consumer while raising profits for the provider. “We’re achieving a real economical solution with the aim to balance what you save with what you pay,” Mr Iannelli said.

The first deals on offer will be for residential solar panels and maintenance. At present the piloted website features six products including a solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop kit costing from Dh15,200 to just under Dh160,000, depending on what is needed. Options for payment include credit card as well as a “pay as you save” financing option by Emirates Islamic Bank, the Sharia-compliant unit of Dubai lender Emirates NBD.

While the Dubai government’s Shams initiative is in place for solar rooftops, the emirate is still adjusting it.

“Dewa is not just taking steps, but giant strides in bringing green initiatives forward … their steps are much larger than other entities,” Mr Iannelli said.

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Key developments in maritime dispute

2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier. 

2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus

2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.

2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.

2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting

2. Prayer

3. Hajj

4. Shahada

5. Zakat 

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if you go

The flights

Direct flights from the UAE to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, are available with Air Arabia, (www.airarabia.com) Fly Dubai (www.flydubai.com) or Etihad (www.etihad.com) from Dh1,200 return including taxes. The trek described here started from Jomson, but there are many other start and end point variations depending on how you tailor your trek. To get to Jomson from Kathmandu you must first fly to the lake-side resort town of Pokhara with either Buddha Air (www.buddhaair.com) or Yeti Airlines (www.yetiairlines.com). Both charge around US$240 (Dh880) return. From Pokhara there are early morning flights to Jomson with Yeti Airlines or Simrik Airlines (www.simrikairlines.com) for around US$220 (Dh800) return. 

The trek

Restricted area permits (US$500 per person) are required for trekking in the Upper Mustang area. The challenging Meso Kanto pass between Tilcho Lake and Jomson should not be attempted by those without a lot of mountain experience and a good support team. An excellent trekking company with good knowledge of Upper Mustang, the Annaurpuna Circuit and Tilcho Lake area and who can help organise a version of the trek described here is the Nepal-UK run Snow Cat Travel (www.snowcattravel.com). Prices vary widely depending on accommodation types and the level of assistance required.