DUBAI TO BUILD WORLD’S TALLEST SOLAR TOWER

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has awarded a US$3.8bn contract for the fourth phase of its solar park to Shanghai Electric and ACWA Power of Saudi Arabia.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (MBR) Solar Park located about 50km south of Dubai, had its first phase of 13MW built by US firm First Solar in 2013, followed by a 200MW second phase, built by Spanish contractor TSK and ACWA and was commissioned in march, the third phase of 800MW is currently been by a consortium led by Abu Dhabi’s Future Energy Company, which is associated with the Masdar eco-city.

This just awarded fourth phase is a 700MW project that will include a 260m-high concentrating solar tower, the tallest to be built in a solar farm.

Subsequent phases will bring the park’s installed capacity to 5GW of electricity by 2030, making it a challenger for the title of the world’s largest solar park, a title that is presently held by the 650MW Kamuthi plant in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The final cost is expected to be US$13.6bn.

The park is notable for its low cost of energy generated as Shanghai and ACWA have set the extension’s levelised cost of electricity at 7.3 cents per kW/h. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the chief executive of DEWA described this as the ”lowest cost in the world”.

MBR is part of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, to transform Dubai into “an international hub for clean energy and green economy”, by providing 7% of Dubai’s power output from clean resources by 2020, 25% by 2030, and 75% by 2050.

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