Dubai: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) is increasing the generation capacity of Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park up to 200 mega watt at a cost of Dh1.2 billion. The announcement was made at a press conference held on Thursday in Dubai in the presence of Saudi ACWA and Spain’s TSK, the selected bidders to execute the project in a public-private partnership, while Dewa will retain 51 per cent of the project.
Currently the park is generating a 13 mega watts (MW) of electricity and its capacity will be increased up to 200MW by 2017.
The Solar Park is one of the largest renewable energy projects in the region with planned capacity of 1,000MW, at a cost of Dh12 billion at the completion phase in 2030.
According to Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, Solar energy will account for one per cent of the Dubai’s total energy production by 2020 and five per cent by 2030.
“Banks will be financing 86 per cent of the project and most of it will come from Saudi Commercial Bank and First Gulf Bank in the UAE. The rest equity funded on a 51/49 per cent split by DEWA and the consortium,” said Saeed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dewa. “The solar project is part of the emirate’s plan to diversify its energy mix and reduce dependency on oil and gas as it will reduce the emission of 250,000 tons of carbon,” he added.
The solar park project has boosted Dewa assets from Dh115 billion earlier to Dh715 billion at present, Al Tayer added. Dewa’s current power generation capacity is estimated at 9740MW, 30 per cent more than the current energy demand, according to Al Tayer.
