Leading energy experts from Deloitte will attend Abu Dhabi’s World Future Energy Summit next week to share insights into trends for the year ahead.

They will join international policy makers, industry leaders and investors as well as academics for the third year running during the WFES to find practical and sustainable solutions for today’s energy security and climate change problems.

Deloitte will unveil two publications, Renewable Energy 2011 and Energy Predictions 2011, which predict the future trends and challenges within the realm of renewable energy at the summit.

Peter Bommel, Deloitte’s global lead partner for energy and resources who is attending the summit, stated: “At Deloitte, we see continued growth in solar as one of the key trends in energy in 2011, as well as the convergence of mergers & acquisitions on emerging markets, nuclear power developments and intensified attention to water usage.”

Some of these trends are apparent here in the region as Middle East energy partner Mutasem Dajani explained: “Solar as well as the nuclear developments are key opportunities for energy diversification in the region, with the Abu Dhabi government taking a regional lead role in both those sectors.”

While some doubt a diversification from oil into energy within the Middle East, Hannes Reinisch, regional renewable energy coordinator, sees it as a strategic opportunity. “An interesting dynamic pertaining to future energy here in the Middle East is to witness how governments develop ways to complement their natural fossil resources with future energy resources for the long-term. There are plans to recycle oil-revenues into solar energy and sustainability research, which is a smart way of investing current wealth to return sustainable economic stability and energy security in the future.”

According to Deloitte, 2011 will not be without its challenges. Supersising renewable energy to a truly large scale and finding ways to fund renewable projects are among the key challenges for the industry this coming year, it said.

Governments, on the other hand, face the challenge of creating regulatory certainty to attract energy sector investment even in times of economic uncertainty. Another critical challenge where government and industry could work together is building the foundations to attract key talent with specialist skills into the industry and region, Deloitte said.

Looking far beyond 2011, Deloitte sees the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) as a driver of change with significant potential to deliver transformation to the future energy industries of the Middle East, Europe and North Africa.

Dajani reiterates: “Deloitte is proud partner with Dii in their aim to tap into the clean power resources from the deserts of the region.” – TradeArabia News Service