Dubai solar park reaches 1,800 megawatt capacity

The facility will have an overall output of 5,000 megawatts by 2030

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  An aerial view of Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park in Dubai in January 2022. Solar is essential to the UAE's new energy mix. All photos by Pawan Singh / The National

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  The fifth phase of a clean energy project at the Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park will further help reduce carbon emissions.

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  An aerial view of the Solar Park in the Dubai desert.

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  Marco Garcia, chief commercial officer of Nextracker, a US company which has provided photovoltaic technology used in the project.

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  The Innovation Centre at the MBR Solar Park in Dubai, where machine learning is being utilised to track direct sunlight to maximise efficient energy capture, storage and transmission.

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  The solar powered panels follow the path of the sun to help the emirate reach its clean energy transition goals.

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  Omar Al Hassan, chief executive of Shuaa Energy 3, the company operating the scheme, says the vast project will ultimately create clean energy to power more than 250,000 houses in Dubai.

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  Robotic cleaning systems are installed on the solar panels.

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  More than 2.5 million photovoltaic modules have been fitted during phase 5 of the project.

Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park now has a production capacity of 1,827 megawatts, officials announced on Monday.

The facility, being built by the emirate's electricity and water authority, is planned to have a total capacity of 5,000MW by 2030.

Built by the emirate's electricity and water authority, Dewa, it is the largest single-site solar park in the world, with total investments of about Dh50 billion. Upon completion, it will eliminate more than 6.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

"We are also prepared to meet the growing demand for electricity and water services according to the highest standards of availability, reliability, efficiency and quality," said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Dewa chief executive.

"We strive to keep pace with demand by implementing pioneering projects to diversify sources of energy production to include various clean and renewable energy sources and technologies in Dubai and expand the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park projects.

"This will help achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050 to provide 100% of Dubai’s total power production capacity from clean energy sources by 2050."

The project recently added 300MW from the 900MW fifth phase using photovoltaic panels.

Dewa will introduce other projects at the solar park with a total capacity of 1,033MW using photovoltaic solar panels and concentrated solar power technology, which raises the share of clean energy production within Dubai's energy mix to 11.5 per cent.

This is expected to reach 14 per cent by the end of this year

The fourth phase of the solar park, with a capacity of 950MW and investments amounting to Dh15.78 billion, is the largest concentrated single-site solar power plant that combines CSP and solar photovoltaic technologies.

It will provide clean energy for around 320,000 residences and reduce 1.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions yearly.

Earlier this month, Dewa asked international developers to send their Expressions of Interest to implement the sixth phase of the solar park based on the IPP model.

The sixth phase of the park will become operational in stages, starting from Q3 2025.