Dubai refinances 950 MW Noor Energy 1 CSP-PV plant at $2.7 billion

Noor Energy 1, a Dubai solar complex that pairs 700 MW of CSP with 250 MW of PV, has replaced its original project debt with a $2.7 billion refinancing that closed “well ahead of schedule,” DEWA Chief Executive Officer Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer said this week.

The complex, the fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, pairs a 600 MW parabolic trough plant and a 100 MW solar tower with its PV array. Al Tayer described it as “the world’s largest single-site concentrated solar power project,” with “up to 15 hours of thermal energy storage.”

DEWA did not disclose the tenor, pricing or savings figure. Al Tayer said the refinancing “enabled the optimization of financing costs” and would generate “substantial savings over the operational life of the project,” adding that the plant “now operates at world-class availability.” He said lenders had committed “in a market defined by liquidity concerns and interest rate volatility.”

Noor Energy 1 is owned by DEWA, ACWA Power and China’s Silk Road Fund. The project reached financial close in March 2019 at a cost of AED 15.78 billion ($4.3 billion), with record tariffs of $0.073/kWh for CSP and $0.024/kWh for PV.

The solar park, which combines PV and CSP, began operating with its first phase in October 2013. It was followed by a 200 MW second stage and an 800 MW third phase. In September 2025, DEWA said the 1.8 GW sixth phase was more than two-thirds complete, with 1 GW in operation. DEWA has since raised the park’s 2030 target to more than 8,000 MW and invited proposals for a seventh phase.

The solar park is a cornerstone of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050, which target 100% of the emirate’s power capacity from clean sources by mid-century.