New solar power plant for Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi Government and two foreign partners will spend US$600 million (Dh2.2 billion) to build one of the world’s largest solar power plants in a stretch of sun-scorched desert south-west of the capital.

Masdar, the Government’s clean-energy company, picked the Spanish solar company Abengoa and Total, the French oil giant, to help fund, build and operate its biggest investment yet on solar technology.

With generating capacity of 100 megawatts, the plant would be 10 times larger than the much-lauded solar panel array Masdar installed last year at its carbon-neutral development at the edge of the capital.

The launch of the project was a watershed moment in Abu Dhabi’s ambitions to have renewable energy supply 7 per cent of the emirate’s electricity by 2020, said Sultan al Jaber, the chief executive of Masdar.

“The launch of Shams 1, the 100-megawatt concentrated solar power plant, marks a significant step forward in the growth of solar power and the renewable energy industry,” Dr al Jaber said.

“These are benefits that will have a long-lasting and strategic impact on [Abu Dhabi’s] economic growth.”

The plant at Madinat Zayed in Al Gharbia will base its technology on existing facilities in Spain that use mirrors to concentrate the heat of the sun on a central pipe filled with liquid. The concentrated heat is used to generate steam, which turns a conventional electricity turbine. Electricity from the plant is fed directly into an electric grid. Masdar is an investor in two such Spanish projects through a local joint-venture company.

Abengoa and Total will each take a 20 per cent equity stake in the Abu Dhabi project, with the rest held by Masdar. Abengoa’s contracting subsidiary will build the plant, while Total will help operate it.

Construction is scheduled to start this summer and be completed in 24 months, said Mohammed al Zaabi, a project manager in Masdar Power, the company’s electricity subsidiary.

“We see a future in concentrated solar power. We’re investing in it here in Abu Dhabi and also in Spain,” Mr al Zaabi said.

“That is why it’s a matter of long-term vision. We are learning now. We want to be leaders in the future, we think we should take this advantage today.”

The design for Shams 1 includes modifications to account for Abu Dhabi’s arid, dusty climate, Mr al Zaabi said.

The plant greatly reduces the use of precious fresh water by using a dry system rather than water to cool the steam turbine, he said.

The effects of dust and haze, which markedly reduced the performance of solar thermal plants in computer tests performed by Masdar last year, have been taken into account in the design, Mr al Zaabi said.

Plans call for more frequent cleaning of mirrors than at similar plants in Europe, he said.