Third phase of Dubai’s mega solar park to be operational in April

The 800MW third phase of Dubai’s Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park will be operational in April, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) revealed on Saturday.

Work is currently underway on the site, focusing on operational preparations to evaluate the readiness of the substation. After the primary tests, the substation will undergo pilot operational tests, a statement said.

DEWA is building the 800MW photovoltaic third phase of the solar park in three stages, in partnership with a consortium led by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, Masdar, and EDF Group, through its subsidiary EDF Energies Nouvelles.

The 200MW first stage became operational in May 2018 while the 300MW second stage became operational in August 2018.

The third stage will see 300MW of energy generated using photovoltaic technology across the solar farms.

Based on an independent power producer (IPP) model, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park is set to be the largest single-site solar park in the world when complete.

It has a planned capacity of 5,000MW in 2030 with investments of Dhs50bn.

The solar power projects currently operational in the park have a capacity of 713MW with a planned capacity of 1,013MW by April 2020. DEWA is currently implementing four more projects with a capacity of 2,150MW at the solar park, bringing the total capacity of the current five phases announced to 2,863MW.

DEWA intends to reach 5,000MW by 2030, to achieve the objectives of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, to produce 75 per cent of the emirate’s total power output from clean energy and make Dubai the city with the lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050.