Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has increased the production capacity of the first project of the fifth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid (MBR) Al Maktoum Solar Park from 300 megawatts (MW) to 330MW.
This is the outcome of increasing energy production by combining the latest solar photovoltaic bifacial technology with Single Axis Tracking. With $560 million in investments, the 900MW fifth phase is 60 percent complete, with 4.225 million safe working hours without accidents.
The MBR Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world, is DEWA’s biggest project to achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050. It has a planned capacity of 5,000MW by 2030. The clean energy share is currently 11.38 percent of Dubai’s energy mix, and it will reach 13.3 percent 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).
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer MD & CEO DEWA
“At DEWA, we work in line with the vision and directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, 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 percent of Dubai’s total power capacity from clean energy sources by 2050.“
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 received around $11 billion of investments and received the lowest global solar energy prices five consecutive times, making Dubai a global benchmark for solar energy prices.
Mr. 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 on as per the targeted timeline. The second project is now 57 percent finished. The fifth phase will provide clean energy for more than 270,000 residences in Dubai and will reduce 1.18 million tons of carbon emissions annually. It will become operational in stages until 2023.
