Dubai - World's Largest Solar Power Project
06/2016
Dubai plays to the leadership in the clean energy industry.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) recently announced that they are planning to build a massive concentrated solar power plant with a power capacity of 1000 MW, in other words 1 GW.
As of the date of this article, the holder of the world record, the Solar Power Plant Noor-Ouarzazate , which is planned to reach 500 MW by 2018, is located in Morocco. (View of the Noor-Ouarzazate power station on the right is provided from Google Earth.)
An example of this project is a much lower scale solar power plant built in Mersin, Turkey, but based on the same principle.
When the project is completed, it will be very similar to the Solar Power Plant located in California Mojave Desert. ( http://www.computerworld.com/article/3031659/sustainable-it/worlds-largest-solar-plant-goes-live-will-provide-power-for-11m-people.html )
Installation and Operation:
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer , CEO of DEWA, stated that the plant they will build could be put into operation by 2030, and at the same time, 2030 will be the year they hope to obtain 25% of the country's energy demand from clean energy sources. Firms from the private sector will be selected for the installation and operation of the power plant. In the first stage, the goal is to reach 200 MW of power plant energy capacity by 2021.
Construction Technique and Advantages:
According to Al Tayer, in the project, thousands of heliostats (in short, the mechanism with mirrors that can move according to the direction of the sun fixed to the ground) will reflect the sun's rays onto a tower. Stating that Concentrated Solar Power Plants bring along very important advantages, Al Tayer explained that the thermal heat source can be easily stored and thus the plant can continue to generate electricity even in the evening. The thermal heat storage period in the project will vary between 8-12 hours per day.
Vision and Future Goals:
Talking about the future, Al Tayer emphasizes that his rational leaders are constantly working with their foresight and support and their instructions to resort to new methods that they can give up until the last drop of oil resources. Al Tayer continues: “Achieving this balance between development and sustainability is based on a vision that recognizes the importance of renewable energy. DEWA will continue to build new projects to achieve this vision and strengthen its sustainability to ensure a bright and happy future. ”
This plant will also make a great contribution to the achievement of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 targets. According to the strategy, by 2050, Dubai aims to generate as much as 75% of its energy production from renewable sources. As a step towards this goal, DEWA is working to achieve 61% natural gas, 25% solar energy, 7% "clean coal" and 7% nuclear power generation distribution by 2030.
References:
* Cited from http://inhabitat.com/dubai-to-build-the-worlds-biggest-concentrated-solar-power-plant/.
* http://phys.org/news/2016-06-dubai-megawatt-solar-power.html