Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park phase 3 operational in April

The 800MW third phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park will be operational in April, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, DEWA, revealed on Saturday.

The announcement was made following a site visit by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, DEWA Managing Director and CEO.

Upon completion, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park will be the largest single-site solar park in the world, based on an independent power producer, IPP, model. It has a planned capacity of 5,000 MW in 2030 with investments of Dh50 billion.

During the site visit, Al Tayer was briefed by Fawaz Al Muharrami, CEO of Shua'a Energy 2, on the construction progress of the third stage of the 800 MW third phase, who explained that that it will be operational in April, with a capacity of 300MW of energy using photovoltaic technology across the solar farms.

The current work focuses on operational preparations to evaluate the readiness of the substation. After the primary tests, the substation will undergo pilot operational tests.

DEWA is building the 800MW photovoltaic third phase of the solar park in three stages, in partnership with a consortium led by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, Masdar, and EDF Group, through its subsidiary EDF Energies Nouvelles. The 200 MW first stage became operational in May 2018; and the 300 MW second stage became operational in August 2018.

The solar power projects currently operational in the solar park have a capacity of 713MW with a planned capacity of 1,013 MW by April 2020. DEWA is currently implementing four more projects with a capacity of 2,150 MW at the solar park, bringing the total capacity of the current five phases announced to 2,863MW.

DEWA intends to reach 5,000MW by 2030, to achieve the objectives of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, to produce 75 percent of Dubai's total power output from clean energy, and make Dubai the city with the lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050.