KUNA reported that energy experts and scientists from the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council began a meeting in Brussels Wednesday with the objective to promote common interests of stakeholders in the two regional blocs active in the field of clean energy.

The EU GCC Clean Energy Network is holding its second Discussion Groups' Meeting and said that Professor John Psarras director of the project from the EU side. He told the gathering that the idea behind the network is to be a catalyst to promote cooperation and activities between companies, organizations and universities in the clean energy sector.

The Greek professor noted that the Brussels meeting was the second Discussion Groups' gathering of the network with the aim to brief the participants of the outcome of the first Discussion Groups' Meeting held in Abu Dhabi in November 2010 and to build on those results. The first plenary meeting of the network was held last January in Abu Dhabi. He said that the network works on an informal technical level to help and support the official EU and GCC energy group. The network has 200 registered members from both sides.

Mr Psarras said that the two-day meeting will focus on discussing specific co-operation within the Five Discussion Groups: Renewable Energy Sources, Energy Demand Management & Energy Efficiency, Clean Natural Gas & related Clean Technologies, Electricity Interconnections & Market Integration, Carbon Capture and Storage.

Mr Hamza Kazim from the Masdar Institute, UAE which is the leading counterpart of the EU from the GCC side in the network said that they have had held several meetings and discussions on how to make this network sustainable. We are really keen to see this network sustain itself and moving forward. We have requested the GCC to select the top institutions from different countries in order be promoters for the GCC networks.

He said that the Kuwait Institute for Science and Research is among the partners in the network. Over two days, EU and GCC experts will discuss a number of issues such as Renewable Energy Sources, Carbon Capture and Storage, Electricity Interconnections and Market Integration.

(Sourced from KUNA)