A senior UAE government official has said that the Abu Dhabi government’s investments into the renewable energy sector has hit $2.17bn.
Investments into the sector began over a decade ago in 2006 with Shams 1, which is billed as the largest renewable energy project in operation in the Middle East. The $599m solar project boasts 768 parabolic trough collectors to generate 100MW of clean electricity according to Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, chairman of the Department of Energy.
“The emirate’s investments in the clean energy sector will witness significant growth this year due to a number of new projects in the production of reverse osmosis water and solar electricity production, to be announced in the coming days during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2019,” stated Marar.
Marar also stated that the emirate has built the world’s largest independent solar power plant, Noor Abu Dhabi, in Sweihan with a 1.17GW capacity at a cost of $871m. Part of the production of the power station is said to have been added to the electricity network. The entire project is expected to be operational in April and will be connected to the Abu Dhabi electricity network, according to Marar.
“An Asian consortium consisting of JinkoSolar of China and Marubeni of Japan offered a tariff of 2.42 cents per kWh, making it the lowest ever levelised cost of electricity bid for solar power,” he added.
Additionally, Marar noted that new projects are planned, which will contribute to the sustainability of the energy sector in the emirate.
A 1500MW solar energy facility is the first such project and is scheduled to be unveiled in Q1, 2019.
“In addition to this, we are preparing to design a project to produce reverse osmosis water on the main contractor by the end of Q3. Abu Dhabi has been the best in producing water at the lowest prices, which has reflected positively on consumers,” Marar concluded.