The chief executive of the Abu Dhabi-based environmental city Masdar announced here Thursday that Masdar launched a new pilot project aiming to deliver renewable energy to run desalination plants in the sheikhdom.

The objective of the initiative is that by 2020, the first green desalination plant would deliver drinking water and operate commercially without burning fossil fuels, Dr. Ahmed Al-Jaber said on the last day of the International Water Summit.

The desert countries in the Gulf Arab region produce over 90 percent of their drinking water from desalinated sea water, " a process which is currently done in a very energy-intensive and hence costly way," Al-Jaber explained.

The Gulf region accounts for nearly 50 percent of the world's desalinated water, he added.

Al-Jaber added that Masdar would launch a total of three pilot projects which will operate over a course of three and half years in order to study how clean energy sources such as wind or solar power could alone run a desalination plant.

As part of the initiative, Masdar will work closely together with the International Desalination Association in order to maximize research and development in that field.

The three pilot projects will be financed 50 percent by Masdar, while the other half would be provided by partnering firms form the private sector. Al-Jaber said that 48 firms from the renewable energy industry that announced their intention to participate in the pilot project have been short-listed so far. Endi

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