The Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme has held, in co-operation with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), a co-ordination meeting attended by a number of local and international authorities to discuss the ambitious national project to support the use of renewable energy in housing projects in the UAE.

During the meeting held at the programme headquarters in Dubai, the participants reviewed the most important achievements of the programme in the environmental field across the country. The programme aims to achieve the ambitious vision of providing sustainable housing.

They also reviewed the IRENA's role in the renewable energy sector in the world in general and in support of the UAE in particular, as well as the large role it could play in the housing programmes to increase the solar energy capacity in the UAE.

The participants discussed co-operation between the energy and the environment authorities with regard to promoting the use of solar panels for the production of electrical energy in houses by providing the necessary information to find solutions that facilitate the use of solar energy for the production of electrical energy in terms of developing policies and legislation to support it, and the provision of alternatives to reduce the cost.

The Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme had launched in November the first project for housing energy being produced at the level of government housing projects, with the aim of producing electric power in government housing by taking advantage of unutilised surfaces and spaces such as parking lots to install solar panels that transform solar energy into electricity.

Eng. Jamilia Al Fendi, Director General of the Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme, said that in implementation of the directives of Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Belhaif Al-Nuaimi, Minister of Public Works, Chairman of the Government Housing Projects, a joint working team has been formed by the programme and the ministry to study the project and feasibility of its implementation to current and future houses of the programme.

She noted that the project will provide alternative solutions to generate clean energy in housing, and added that solar panels will be installed in each house to produce electricity with a capacity of 10 /KW.