Dubai to operate world's largest solar power project

Dubai will implement the world's largest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project valued at 14.2 billion dirhams ($3.87 billion), UAE daily Gulfnews reported on Saturday.

The CSP project will be implemented by Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (Dewa). And the largest single-site project will generate 700 megawatts (MW) of power when it is completed in the last quarter of 2020, parallel to the World Expo 2020 in Dubai, Xinhua reported.

The project will include the world's tallest solar tower, standing 260 metres tall, the report said.

The project comes as part of implementing the fourth stage of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park and to support the end goals of Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, said the report.

Gulfnews quoted the UAE Vice President as saying "We are steadily moving towards achieving Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 goals, which we have launched to turn Dubai into a global hub for clean energy and green economy and become the lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050".

The Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is the largest single-site strategic renewable energy project, using the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model.

It will generate 1,000MW by 2020 and 5,000MW by 2030, according to the report.

According to Dewa's Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy, the Gulf Arab sheikhdom aims to generate 71 percent of its total power output from natural gas, 12 percent from nuclear power, 12 percent from clean coal and 5 percent from renewable energy by 2030.

--IANS

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