Financial terms finalised for third phase of Dubai solar park

Abu Dhabi's Masdar has secured financing terms for an 800 megawatt phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

Abu Dhabi's Masdar has secured financing terms for an 800 megawatt phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, paving the way for construction work to gather pace. Courtesy Government of DubaiShow less

Masdar has secured financing for an 800 megawatt solar plant in Dubai.

Abu Dhabi’s clean energy company, with partner EDF of France, said that it had reached financial close on Tuesday for the third phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park, allowing for funds to start flowing in to the project.

No details of the terms were disclosed.

Masdar said that the project is on-schedule to be delivered in 2020. Last month, Canadian Solar began production and shipping of the more than 800,000 solar panels that will be needed to complete the first phase of the project.

“Construction of the third phase of the solar park is progressing as scheduled, thanks to the close involvement of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) and the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders,” said Mohamed Al Ramahi, the chief executive of Masdar.

Masdar said that “considerable progress is being made on the site, with drilling and piling works under way for the placement of the solar photovoltaic panels”. Completion of the first stage totaling 200MW is expected next year, another 300MW will be added in 2019 and the final 300MW will be delivered in 2020.

Dewa awarded the third phase to Masdar last summer and the bid it submitted for the project was a world record for electricity generated from solar at 2.99 US cents per kilowatt-hour – nearly half the successful bid in the second phase at 5.84 cents per kWh.

Masdar pointed to a “sophisticated financing structure” that had to be brokered with seven different institutions.

The regional financiers include Union National Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp). France’s Natixis, Siemens Financial Services, Korea Development Bank and Export Development Canada were also involved.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park, once completed, will be able to produce 5,000MW by 2030 – totaling Dh50 billion in investments. Currently the first two phases are feeding 213MW of solar power into the grid.

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter