Dubai’s state energy utility has awarded a $3.9 billion contract to build the 700-megawatt fourth phase of a solar power plant with molten salt energy storage.
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) gave the contract for the fourth phase of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to a consortium comprising Shanghai Electric and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power.
The consortium bid the lowest levelised cost of electricity of 7.3 US cents per kilowatt-hour, DEWA said. “This renewable energy plant allows a saving of 2.4 million tons of CO2 and will provide electricity to an equivalent of 568,000 households— an urban conurbation of the size of Houston, Texas,” DEWA said.
DEWA said the park, which covers a total area of 77 square kilometres about 50 kilometres south of Dubai city, will use a combination of the “world’s tallest solar tower”, of 260 metres, and parabolic trough concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies. The molten-salt stored heat will allow the plant to “supply electricity on demand at all hours of the day and night, even when the sun is not shining”, DEWA said.
The initial stage of the fourth phase will be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the park is expected to generate 5,000MW by 2030. The 13MW photovoltaic first phase became operational in 2013. The 200MW photovoltaic second phase was launched in March 2017. The 800MW photovoltaic third phase will be operational by 2020.
An ACWA spokesperson told BBB that the heat storage capacity is being applied phase-by-phase of the project “and the total capacity will come on line progressively”, in line with plant’s construction schedule.
