Abu Dhabi: In another step for sustainable energy in the UAE, Masdar Institute has inaugurated the completion of its solar power facility, which utilises innovative technology for energy storage.
It was built in partnership with EnergyNest, a Norwegian company that specialises in energy storage. Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State, and Jens Eikaas, Norwegian Ambassador to the UAE, attended the opening ceremony.
“Norway and the UAE share many commonalities, we are both petroleum fuelled economies, we both rely on nature and therefore we share a concern for the environment,” Eikaas said during the opening remarks.
“Making energy storage cost effective, easily available and more efficient is vital for establishing a sustainable future,” he added.
Explaining some of the technical aspects behind how the solar platform works, Dr Steve Griffiths, Vice President for Research, Masdar Institute, said: “The technology has three major components. There’s the beam down tower that has a solar field, a centre receiver and a receiving system,” he said.
“The solar field receives the contracted sunlight and then beams it to the top of the 20 meter high tower. There are 45 mirrors at the top of the tower that redirect the sunlight down to the solar receiver, which can be a high temperature receiver for thermal energy storage,” he added.
Dr Christian Thiel, CEO at EnergyNest, commented that the technology behind the solar platform has been tested successfully, and has revealed major capabilities.
“Once charged with solar power, one full load can charge 70,000 smartphones, and at the same time produce 10,000 litres of water through desalination,” he said.
“If we break these numbers down over a year, 26 million cellphones can be charged, and around three to four million litres of water can be produced. So there is a lot of potential application for this technology.”
