The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) hailed Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s decision to harness solar and nuclear power to power up to 100% of its electricity grid – a step that could help the public entity to decarbonize its operations.

“Adnoc is once again playing a leading role in decarbonizing its oil and gas operations. By using clean energy sources to power its facilities, it will reduce the carbon intensity of its operations and products,” tweeted Opec Wednesday.

“The world continues to need oil and gas, and bold action like this is essential to decarbonize our industry.”

The initiative was launched on Tuesday by Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Board and chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors of Adnoc.

Adnoc has entered into an agreement with Emirates Water and Electricity Company to take up to 100% of its electricity needs from solar and nuclear power. The state-owned company is set to become the world’s first oil and gas company to completely decarbonize its large-scale power grid, Adnoc said on Tuesday.

The supply of clean electricity to Adnoc will begin in January 2022.

The agreement “directly supports our goal of remaining one of the lowest carbon operators in the oil and gas industry, and highlights how hydrocarbons, clean energy and advanced energy sources can complement each other in energy transition, ”said Dr Sultan Al Jaber. , Managing Director of Adnoc and Managing Director of the group.

The United Arab Emirates became the first Gulf country to adopt a strategy to offset all of its national carbon emissions by 2050. The country aims to achieve this by investing 600 billion dirhams, including in energy sources clean and renewable over the next three decades.

The United Arab Emirates, OPEC’s third-largest oil producer, seeks to increase its share of clean energy production to 44% by 2050. The renewable energy projects it is developing include the largest World-wide single-site solar power plant in Al Dhafra with a total capacity of 2 gigawatts.

Abu Dhabi, which accounts for almost all of the UAE’s oil production, is also updating its policies to accelerate the shift to low-carbon energy use.

The emirate said earlier this year that it would issue clean energy certificates as part of a new regulatory policy aimed at decarbonizing the energy sector and allowing trading in renewable energy attributes and nuclear.

These certificates serve as proof of electricity produced from a renewable source, stating that each renewable power plant has generated and added 1 megawatt hour of electricity to the grid.

Energy attribute certificates are voluntary, negotiable financial instruments and can be used as credits to claim environmental and social benefits arising from low carbon energy consumption.

Update: October 27, 2021, 4:17 p.m.