The solar power tower located in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai stands at an impressive height of 262.44 metres, making it the tallest in the world. This project follows the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model and has attracted investments of up to Dh15.78 billion. Its primary objective is to generate clean energy for approximately 320,000 residences, resulting in a significant reduction of carbon emissions by 1.6 million tonnes annually.
Notably, the fourth phase of this project is the largest single-site endeavor globally that combines Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and photovoltaic technologies, boasting a capacity of 950MW.
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the managing director and CEO of DEWA, emphasized the significance of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park’s projects. They serve as a crucial component of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050, which aim to achieve 100% energy production capacity from clean sources by 2050. The recent commissioning of the 200MW second unit of the parabolic basin complex in the fourth phase has increased the solar park’s overall production capacity to 2,627MW, contributing to DEWA’s total production capacity of 15,117MW.
DEWA is implementing other energy storage projects, including the 250MW pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant in Hatta, with a storage capacity of 1,500 megawatt hours, and the Green Hydrogen project that produces and stores hydrogen using solar energy, added Al Tayer.
About the Solar Park
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is the largest single-site solar park in the world, with a planned total capacity of 5,000MW by 2030. DEWA and the ACWA Power-led consortium, established Noor Energy 1 as a project company to design, build, and operate the fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. DEWA holds a 51 per cent stake in the company, ACWA Power holds 25 per cent, and the Chinese Silk Road Fund owns 24 per cent.
The fourth phase of the Solar Park employs a combination of three hybrid technologies to generate clean energy. These include a parabolic basin complex with a capacity of 600MW (comprising three units of 200MW each), a solar power tower standing at 262.44 metres, which is the tallest in the world and utilizes Molten Salt technology to produce 100MW, and photovoltaic solar panels that generate 250MW. The total commissioned capacity of this phase currently stands at 717MW, and it boasts the world’s largest thermal storage capacity of 15 hours, enabling the availability of solar energy round the clock. The fourth phase involved the installation of over 790,000 photovoltaic solar panels and more than 63,600 parabolic trough collectors. The project also integrates 70,000 mirrors (heliostats) that track the sun’s movement.
The construction of the first unit of the fourth phase project, with a capacity of 100MW from the solar tower, the second unit of 200MW from the parabolic basin complex, and 217MW from photovoltaic solar panels, has been completed in its entirety. The second unit of 200MW from the parabolic basin complex has also been fully constructed. The third unit of 200MW from the parabolic basin complex and 33MW from photovoltaic solar panels are currently 87.1% complete.