Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has signed an amendment to the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power for Phase Four of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.
The amendment includes adding 250 MW of photovoltaic solar panels, at a cost of 2.4 US cents per kilowatt hour, the world's lowest.
The agreement was signed by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the managing director and chief executive of Dewa and Mohammad Abdullah Abunayyan, the chairman of Acwa Power in the presence of Ishaq Al Hammadi, the managing director at Acwa Power-UAE and Abdul Hamid Al Muhaidib, the executive managing director of Noor Energy 1.
Senior Dewa officials, Waleed Salman, the executive VP of Business Development and Excellence; Nasser Lootah, executive VP of Generation; and Jamal Shaheen Al Hammadi, VP of Clean Energy & Diversification were also present.
Noor Energy 1 was launched in a partnership between Dewa, Acwa Power and China’s Silk Road Fund to build the Phase Four of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.
With this addition, the total capacity of the fourth phase of the solar park will rise from 700MW to 950MW, said a statement from Dewa.
Following the amendment, the total investment for the ambitious project has reached Dh16 billion. This achievement is part of Dewa’s efforts to achieve the objectives of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050.
Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said: "The capacity expansion of the Al Maktoum Solar Park’s further consolidates the UAE’s leadership in the field of sustainable development and provides another impetus to our clean energy strategy."
"The UAE’s leaders accord this sector high priority in their vision for the nation’s future. Furthermore, being at the forefront of technological advancement in this sector is critical to Dubai’s aspiration of becoming one of the leading cities of the world. We see this project being a unique model for large clean energy projects elsewhere in the world," stated Sheikh Hamdan.
"This ambitious initiative also adds a new facet to our cooperation with two of our strongest partners, Saudi Arabia and China. The project brings together a distinctive combination of advanced knowledge and expertise to create the largest single-site solar park in the world," he added.
According to Dewa, the project will use three technologies to produce clean energy: 600MW from a parabolic basin complex, 100MW from a solar tower and 250MW from photovoltaic panels.
The fourth phase is the largest investment project in the world using Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) on a single site, and is based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model, said the Dubai utility firm.
This project has already achieved many world records. It achieved the lowest Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of USD 7.3 cents per kilowatt hour (kW/h) for the CSP technology, the lowest worldwide.
The project will have the world’s tallest solar tower at 260 metres, and the largest thermal energy storage capacity in the world of 15 hours, which allows for energy generation round the clock, it added.
