- The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and the consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and Silk Road Fund, have announced the financial closing of the 950MW fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world.
- The solar park will produce 5,000MW by 2030 with investments totalling AED 50 billion.
The announcement was made by HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, and Mohammad Abdullah Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power, at a press conference that was attended by HE Tan Li, Consul General of the Republic of Chinese in Dubai, and Erik Rovina, Commercial Counselor to the Spanish Embassy in the UAE.
“DEWA is implementing the fourth phase of the solar park in cooperation with Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and China’s Silk Road Fund. This phase is the largest single-site investment project in the world. It uses both Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and photovoltaic solar technologies based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model with investments up to AED15.78 billion. It will use 700MW of CSP; 600MW from a parabolic basin complex and 100MW from a solar tower; and 250MW from photovoltaic solar panels.
“This phase will provide clean energy for 320,000 residences and will reduce 1.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. The project, which will cover an area of 44 square kilometres, achieved several world records. These include the world’s lowest CSP Levelised Cost of Electricity of $7.3 cents per kilowatt-hour and the lowest Levelised Cost of Electricity for photovoltaic technology of 2.4 US cents per kilowatt-hour. The project will feature the tallest solar tower in the world at 260 metres and the largest thermal storage capacity of 15 hours; allowing for energy availability round the clock,” said Al Tayer.
He added: “The solar power projects currently operational in the solar park have a capacity of 413MW. DEWA currently has 3 more projects under implementation with a capacity of 1,550 megawatts. We recently announced the 900MW 5th phase using photovoltaic solar panels, bringing the total capacity of the five phases announced so far to 2,863MW. We are on our way to reaching 5,000MW by 2030 and achieving the objectives of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to produce 75% of Dubai’s total power output from clean energy and make Dubai the city with the lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050.”
Al Tayer thanked DEWA’s partners in the consortium; the local, Chinese, and international banks that are involved in financing the project; and the staff of Noor Energy 1, which was established by the consortium to implement the project. “We promise our wise leadership to continue building renewable and clean energy projects for a more sustainable future, for generations to come,” concluded Al Tayer.
Read the full statement here.
Author: GBA News Desk/ESI-Africa Contributor
This article was originally published on ESI Africa and is republished with permission with minor editorial changes.
