01 February 2020
The 800-MW third phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (MBR) Solar Park will be operational in April, said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa).
Upon completion, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park will be the largest single-site solar park in the world, based on an independent power producer (IPP) model. It has a planned capacity of 5,000 MW in 2030 with investments of Dh50 billion ($13.6 billion).
Dewa is building the 800-MW photovoltaic third phase of the solar park in three stages, in partnership with Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), and EDF Group, through its subsidiary EDF Energies Nouvelles. The operating company of the consortium is Shaua’a 2.
During the site visit, Al Tayer was briefed by Fawaz Al Muharrami, CEO of Shua’a Energy 2, on the construction progress of the third stage of the 800 MW third phase. He explained that it will be operational in April, with a capacity of 300 MW of energy using photovoltaic technology across the solar farms. The current work focuses on operational preparations to evaluate the readiness of the substation. After the primary tests, the substation will undergo pilot operational tests.
The 200-MW first stage became operational in May 2018; and the 300-MW second stage became operational in August 2018.
The solar power projects currently operational in the solar park have a capacity of 713 MW with a planned capacity of 1,013 MW by April 2020. Dewa is currently implementing four more projects with a capacity of 2,150 MW at the solar park, bringing the total capacity of the current five phases announced to 2,863 MW.
Dewa intends to reach 5,000 MW by 2030, to achieve the objectives of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, to produce 75 per cent of Dubai’s total power output from clean energy.