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One of the world’s largest hybrid solar power plants located in Dubai is on track for completion in early 2024.
The 950-megawatt (MW) fourth phase of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2024, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) said in a press statement.
Phase 4 is being developed by a consortium of Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and China’s The Silk Road Fund.
More than 50 percent of the project’s capacity, equivalent to 517 MW, has been connected to the grid, according to the DEWA statement.
The statement said over 790,000 photovoltaic (PV) solar panels have been installed so far, adding that project has registered 62 million working hours.
In January 2023, Zawya Projects had reported that the fourth phase is 92 percent complete.
Phase 4, which is being developed at a total investment of 15.78 billion UAE dirhams ($4.3 billion), has several firsts to its credit including the world’s largest single-site solar IPP [Independent Power Producer] investment project, which combines Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and PV technology and largest single-site Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant; the world’s largest thermal energy storage system of 15 hours allowing for round-the-clock energy availability and the world's tallest solar tower at 260 metres.
The project incorporates three technologies to generate electricity including 600MW from a parabolic basin complex, 100MW from a concentrated solar tower and 250MW from PV panels.
China’s Shanghai Electric is the main Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor for Phase 4.
The fourth phase had attracted the world’s lowest CSP LCOE of $7.3 cents per kWh, and the lowest LCOE for PV technology of $2.4 cents per kWh, according to past statements by DEWA.
Last month, DEWA had stated that the current total production capacity at the solar park is 2,327 MW with 533 MW under construction. The DFM-listed utility also disclosed that it received two bids for the 1,800MW solar PV Phase 6 of the solar park.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is the largest single-site solar park in the world based on the IPP model, with a planned production capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030.
Read more: Mohammed bin Rashid inaugurates 5th phase of Solar Park
(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Bhaskar Raj)
