UAE launches $6bn ‘world’s first' around-the-clock renewable energy facility

Masdar and Ewec will work on the project that can produce 1 gigawatt of uninterrupted clean power

The UAE on Tuesday launched what it called the “world’s first” facility that can provide renewable energy at scale around the clock.

Abu Dhabi clean energy company Masdar will combine 5 gigawatts of solar capacity with 19 gigawatt hours of battery storage to produce 1 gigawatt of “uninterrupted clean power”, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and chairman of Masdar, said at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

The project is being carried out in partnership with the Emirates Water and Electricity Company (Ewec).

“For decades, the biggest barrier facing renewable energy has been intermittency,” Dr Al Jaber said. “It has been the moon shot challenge of our time. How can we power a world that never sleeps with energy sources that do? How can we transform renewable resources into reliable power?

“This will, for the first time ever, transform renewable energy into baseload energy. It is a first step that could become a giant leap.”

The project, which will be located in Abu Dhabi and spread across 90 square kilometres, will require an investment of $6 billion and is expected to start operations by 2027, Abdulaziz Alobaidli, Masdar's chief operating officer, said at a press conference.

“The project will be funded like many other projects in Abu Dhabi … that could be equity and project finance debt funded,” he added.

The Masdar executive also called the initiative the company's “most ambitious project to date”.

The move comes amid increasing pressure on the international community to boost efforts to meet the global goal of tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030.

The goals are critical to maintaining the 1.5°C threshold established in the Paris Agreement in 2015, a treaty in which 195 nations pledged to tackle climate change.

Last week, Francesco La Camera, director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), said that the world is not on track to reach the target and called for more action to align policies and market design to favour renewables.

In October, Irena said international investment in renewable energy must triple to $1.5 trillion annually by 2030 to meet its renewables goal.

Despite record spending of $570 billion in 2023, national plans are set to deliver only half of the required renewable power growth, the Abu Dhabi-based agency said after the pre-Cop29 talks in Azerbaijan.

To meet the global goals, installed renewable capacity needs to reach 11.2 terawatts by 2030, from the current levels of 3.9 terawatts. However, the latest national plans are projected to leave a global collective gap of 3.8 terawatts by 2030, falling short of the goal by 34 per cent, the report found.

The UAE, which plans to generate a total capacity of 19.8 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030, has doubled its renewable energy capacity in the past two years, Dr Amna Al Dahak, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, said last week.

Under the updated objectives of the UAE Energy Strategy 2050, the country will invest between Dh150 billion ($40.84 billion) and Dh200 billion by 2030 to ensure energy demand is met while sustaining economic growth in the Emirates.

Projects under the plan include the 1.8-gigawatt sixth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the second phase of Dubai’s waste-to-energy project, and two major photovoltaic projects – the 1.5-gigawatt Al Ajban plant and the 1.5-gigawatt Al Khazna – both in Abu Dhabi.

Masdar alone aims to reach 100 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030, up from about 20 gigawatts at present.

Growing demand

Speaking on Tuesday, Dr Al Jaber stressed that despite efforts to boost clean energy capacity, power demand was also growing at an unprecedented pace, mainly driven by the rapid scaling up of new technologies.

“Battery storage is the fastest growing energy technology in the world today. A record 100GW of storage will be added to the grid this year. Yet, this represents a tiny fraction of the overall power demand that is being driven by the megatrends, and especially the surge in AI,” he said.

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Before AI took off, power demand was already on track to grow from 9,000 gigawatts to more than 15,000 gigawatts by 2035.

“But with apps like ChatGPT growing by half a billion visits every month and using 10 times as much energy as a single Google search, demand by 2050 could reach as high as 35,000 gigawatts … an increase of over 250 per cent.”

Dr Al Jaber said it was vital that there remains a diversity of energy options to ensure global access.

“No single source of energy can meet this unprecedented demand,” he said. “Policies and regulations that prematurely reduce those options are just self-defeating. Simply put, we need an and-and approach.”