August 22 (Renewables Now) – The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) today shared an update on the progress of the buildout of both the fourth and fifth phases of the 5,000-MW Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park.
The update follows an inspection of the work progress at the project site by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of DEWA.
The announcement says that the AED-15.78-billion (USD 4.3bn/EUR 4.32bn) fourth phase of the project is at 90% completion. It is being developed by Noor Energy 1, a project company in which DEWA holds a controlling stake of 51%, while Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power Co (TADAWUL:2082) owns 25% and the Chinese Silk Road Fund owns 24%.
Phase 4, with a total capacity of 950 MW, is a hybrid scheme that features three different solar technologies and is said to be the largest single-site project mixing Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) with photovoltaics (PVs) that uses the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model. More specifically, the project consists of a 600-MW parabolic basin complex, a 100-MW portion that relies on a 262.4-metre-tall solar tower, and 250 MW of solar PV panels. Upon completion, this phase will boast the largest thermal storage capacity in the world — 15 hours.
Phase 5, on the other hand, is a 900-MW, multi-stage solar IPP development undertaken by Shuaa Energy 3 that is owned 60% by DEWA and 40% by a consortium led by ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corporation. The first 300-MW stage was inaugurated a year ago and has since then been expanded to 330 MW. DEWA noted that this portion has been demonstrating higher-than-expected performance so far.
Presently, the second project of Phase 5 is at 93.3% completion, while the third stage is 23.06% done. Both feature bifacial modules and should be commissioned by 2023.
The total cost of Phase 5 is estimated at AED 2.06 billion. In 2019, DEWA awarded this phase to the ACWA Power-led group at a then record-low tariff of USD 0.016953 (EUR 0.017) per kWh.
The entire Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park is targeted for completion by the end of the decade. So far, it has reached a solar PV capacity of 1,627 MW, while a further 1,233 MW of both solar PV and CSP is under implementation.
(AED 1.0 = USD 0.272/EUR 0.274)
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