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State-owned Masdar, the UAE's biggest renewables company, has completed the acquisition of a 50% stake in a combined solar and battery storage project in California.
In a statement issued by the Abu Dhabi-based operator on Wednesday, the financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
The stake in the Big Beau project, which was first negotiated in 2020, was acquired from EDF Renewables North America and comprises a 128-megawatt (MWac) photovoltaic (PV) solar plant and a 40 MW/160 MWh battery energy storage system.
It is one of eight projects that Masdar and EDF Renewables have agreed to jointly partner in, with a combined capacity of 1.6 gigawatts (GW).
Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and chairman of Masdar, is also the head of COP-28, the UN’s major annual climate change conference that will be hosted by the UAE this year. The country has pledged to hit the net-zero emissions target by 2050.
Al Jaber said: "If we are to keep the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees alive, we need to see countries coming together in concerted action – one of the key areas of focus for the upcoming COP28 in the UAE. Partnerships between companies like Masdar and EDF Renewables are also vital in ensuring we hold back emissions, not progress.”
Masdar is owned by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Mubadala Investment Company, and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA).
In January, UAE and US officials announced that $20 billion will be allocated to fund 15 GW of clean energy projects in the US before 2035, led by Masdar and a consortium of US private investors, under the Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE) between the two countries.
Masdar recently also said it will invest $1.20 billion in British battery storage technology. It bought the UK-based battery company Arlington Energy last year.
(Reporting by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)
