The production capacity of the first project of the fifth phase of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA) Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park has increased from 300 megawatts (MW) to 330MW.
This results from using the latest solar photovoltaic bifacial technologies with Single Axis Tracking to increase energy production. The 900MW fifth phase, with investments of AED 2.058 billion, is 60% complete. This has included 4.225 million safe working hours without injuries. It has a planned capacity of 5,000MW by 2030.
The clean energy share is currently 11.38% of Dubai’s energy mix, and it will reach 13.3% in Q1 of 2022. The current capacity at the Solar Park is 1527MW using solar photovoltaic panels. DEWA is implementing more projects with a total capacity of 1,333MW using solar photovoltaic and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) in addition to future phases to reach 5,000MW by 2030.
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, said: “At DEWA, we work in line with the vision and directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to promote sustainability and innovation and transform into a sustainable green economy by increasing the share of clean and renewable energy. This achieves the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy to provide 100% of Dubai’s power capacity from clean energy sources.
“The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world, is our biggest project to achieve this vision. Since its launch, the solar park’s projects have received considerable interest from global developers, which reflects the confidence of investors from around the world in DEWA’s major projects in collaboration with the private sector using the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model. Through this model, DEWA has attracted around AED 40 billion of investments and received the lowest global solar energy prices five consecutive times, making Dubai a global benchmark for solar energy prices.”
Waleed Bin Salman, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Excellence at DEWA, said that work in the fifth phase of the Solar Park is going as per the targeted timeline. The second project is now 57% complete. He noted that the fifth phase will provide clean energy for more than 270,000 residences in Dubai and will reduce 1.18 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. It will become operational in stages until 2023.
In November 2019, DEWA announced the consortium led by ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corporation as the Preferred Bidder to build and operate the 900MW Fifth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, using photovoltaic solar panels based on the IPP model.
To implement the project, DEWA established Shuaa Energy 3 in partnership with the consortium led by ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corporation. DEWA owns 60% of the company, and the consortium owns the remaining 40%. DEWA achieved a world record by receiving the lowest bid of USD 1.6953 cents per kilowatt hour (kW/h) for this phase.
DEWA recently became the world’s first utility to use nanosatellites to improve the maintenance and planning of electricity and water networks with the successful launch of its DEWA-SAT 1 nanosatellite.
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