Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has signed an agreement to add 250 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) at the fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. This increases the total capacity of the solar park from 700 MW to 950 MW.

The agreement was amended to include power purchase agreement (PPA) with the consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power which also includes China’s Shanghai Electric for the additional 250 MW solar PV to be developed for a tariff of $0.024/kWh, one of the world’s lowest utility-scale solar tariffs. With this, the total investment for the entire project has reached AED 16 billion (~$ 4.36 billion).

In March 2018, Mercom reported that the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is set to become the largest single-site solar park in the world based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model. The solar park is set to generate 1,000 MW by 2020 and 5,000 MW by 2030 and once completed, the project is expected to provide clean energy to over 270,000 residences in Dubai and eliminate 1.4 million tons of carbon emissions per year.

Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said, “The capacity expansion of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park further consolidates the UAE’s leadership in the field of sustainable development and provides another impetus to our clean energy strategy.”

This is the world’s largest investment project using concentrated solar power (CSP) on a single site.  The project will use three technologies – 600MW from a parabolic basin complex, 100MW from a solar tower, and 250MW from solar PV panels.

This project is said to have already achieved many world records. It achieved Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of $0.073/kWh 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.

Earlier, Mercom has reported that The Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia has acquired a 15.2 percent stake in International Company for Water and Power Projects (ACWA Power), a developer, owner, and operator of power generation and water desalination plants.

Image credit: DEWA