The POWER-GEN Middle East conference and exhibition moves to Doha, Qatar for the first time in its nine year history from October 04 -06, 2010 at the Qatar International Exhibition Centre, Doha and is being held under the patronage of Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy & Industry. Considered the region's premier conference and exhibition for the power generation, transmission & distribution and water industries, POWER-GEN Middle East aims to discuss and tackle the strategic and technical issues facing the region, according to a report of the United Arab Emirates News Agency "WAM". Qatar's power generation is expected to increase by a demanding 193.5 per cent before the year 2018. With the Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) considering alternative options to oil and gas-fired power plants, a 3,500 MW solar power project and the building of a nuclear power plant are among some of the options. The region's anticipated growth in demand for power is between 7% and 8% per annum. The GCC grid interconnection that was completed last July has been a success. With the over exploitation of underground water reserves, all governments around the Middle East are having to tackle the issue of how to guarantee access to shrinking supplies of fresh water, with forecasts anticipating demand to double over the next 10 years. There are several power plant and water desalination projects currently under construction and in the planning stages throughout the region, in order to meet this future demand, but more needs to be done in order to maintain long term sustainable energy and water supplies. It is anticipated the GCC needs to invest over $130 Billion in order to meet future power and water demands.
