UAE homes and businesses to harness own solar power

For the first time, Dewa is to allow owners of private properties to install solar panels on their roof to generate electricity

DUBAI // Eco-friendly residents and businesses will soon be able to help the emirate go green – by installing rooftop solar panels.

Private homes and companies are to be allowed to have the panels to generate their own electricity.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) is hiring a consultant to implement the scheme, which will allow small amounts of clean solar power to feed into the electricity grid.

Saeed Al Tayer, chief executive and managing director of Dewa, announced the move after an event to unveil details of the World Green Economy Summit, an environment conference in Dubai on April 15 and 16.

“We already finished the first study about the technical specifications, we are now in the implementation stage and we have to have a consultant specialising in this field,” he said.

The first task facing the Government is to set guidelines for the rooftop programme and ensure Dewa has the institutional capacity to handle it once it has launched.

Dubai is expected to pass legislation on the small-scale use of solar power in the second half of this year.

Waleed Salman, executive vice president of strategy and business development at Dewa and chairman of the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence, said the laws would outline issues such as the scheme’s financial model and whether those generating solar power would be paid special rates to do so.

They will also specify the maximum capacity allowed on rooftops and an annual cap related to the amount of electricity that can be fed into the grid each year.

“In the coming six to eight months we will work on developing the guidelines and procedures, building capacity within the organisation, within the Regulation and Supervision Bureau, making sure that we are ready for the law once it goes out,” Mr Salman said.

Dubai is also progressing with plans to build a large-scale solar power plant on the outskirts of the city.

Both initiatives have been highlighted as key steps in the plan to reduce the emirate’s carbon footprint.

Plans for the hundred-megawatt (MW) plant, to be built at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park in Seih Al Dahal, were announced last year as the emirate opened its first large-scale solar farm with a capacity of 13 MW.

Dubai has pledged that by 2030 its solar park will have a capacity of 1,000 MW of clear power.

Mr Al Tayer said Dewa would be announcing the name of the consultant to help it select a company to build the plant next month.

“We are in the final stages of awarding the contract to the consultant and then the consultant is going to put the specifications and the commercial terms and the legal terms,” said Mr Al Tayer, who is also the vice chairman of the Supreme Council of Energy.

Mr Salman said 12 international companies had been shortlisted for the project, with the choice narrowed to a final four.

He said that by June, Dewa was expected to issue a request for a proposal to start negotiations to build the plant, which will rely on solar photovoltaic technology, using the sun’s light to produce electricity.

Mr Al Tayer also said Dewa was about to issue a tender for a large substation to be built in the vicinity of the solar plant, which is necessary to ensure the power generated by the plant is fed into the grid.

“We have to ensure that both projects are going together to transfer the power to the grid,” said Mr Al Tayer.

The substation is likely to take up to two and a half years to build.