Dubai

The latest 8 MW of net metered solar capacity in Dubai indicates 11 MW were added across ten new arrays in just nine days as the Shams initiative continues to work up a head of steam.

Most of the generation capacity – around 63 MW – was deployed in the emirate over the last 14 months.

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority will use energy from the gigawatt-scale Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to provide a new hydropower plant with pumped storage capacity. The state-owned utility has announced a number of innovations for the project in recent months, including plans for hydrogen and large-scale storage capacity.

Overall, 64 companies have expressed interest in building the next 900 MW phase of the huge Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The first section of this part of the park is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2021.

Phase IV of the huge solar park includes a 700 MW CSP plant and a 250 MW PV facility. Funds for the $4.2 billion project will be provided by banks from the United Arab Emirates and China, as well as other international lenders.

The utility has issued a request for qualification for a further 900 MW of PV at the huge solar park, which is set to reach a total capacity of 5 GW.

Only three months after issuing the project tender, the Dubai Water and Electricity Authority is building the plant with the support of Expo 2020 Dubai and Siemens.

The Smart Grid Station wind-PV facility also incorporates a 500 kWh lithium-ion battery storage system, around 2,000 internet of things-derived sensors and smart meters. The plant was installed by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and Korean utility KEPCO.

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) has announced it will expand Phase IV of the 5 GW Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum Solar Park by another 250 MW. The power utility has also revealed that the PPA with the project developer, local energy giant ACWA Power has been amended, and that the new PV portion of Phase IV, which originally included only a 700 MW CSP power plant planned to sell power at $0.073/kWh, will sell power at a tariff of $0.024/kWh. This price equals that of a 1.17 GW solar project currently under construction in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE-based solar company has signed a 15 year lease for a 1.8 MW rooftop project on two warehouses of Apparel Group, a global fashion and lifestyle retail conglomerate.