UAE gives $900m in aid for projects
Country received two of the cheapest bids for solar PV projects in 2016
The UAE’s renewable energy development aid offered across the globe has reached more than $900 million (Dh3.3 billion), a senior official said here yesterday.
“In 2016, the UAE initiated 11 renewable energy projects with a capacity of 6.5 megawatt (MW) in the Pacific and a 30MW project in Egypt,” Dr Thani Ahmad Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, said at the seventh assembly of International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).
He said the UAE also made two world records in 2016 as Dubai and Abu Dhabi authorities received the cheapest bids to build solar photovoltaic (PV) plants.
The minister was referring to the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s revelation in May last year that it had received a bid of 2.99 cents per kilowatthour from developers seeking to be part of the third phase of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. It was a world record then, which was subsequently broken by a bid of 2.42 cents per kilowatt-hour, received by Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority in September last year.
Ali Al Shafar, the UAE’s Permanent Representative to Irena, told Gulf News on the sidelines of the assembly that the construction of Abu Dhabi’s solar PV project with cheapest cost at Sweihan would start in the near future. “It will generate 350MW of electricity that will be supplied to the grid,” he said.
Al Zeyoudi told the assembly that these positive developments encouraged the UAE to raise its 2021 clean energy target from 24 per cent to 27 per cent as part of its commitment to global efforts to fight climate change.
He said 150 nations have become members of Irena and 27 countries are in the process of getting membership. Al Zeyoudi said it was a major achievement for the agency.
The agency’s efforts have helped the renewable energy industry tremendously. The total investments in renewable energy sector reached $300 billion in 2015, the minister said.
Government officials from more than 150 countries and leaders from international organisations, the private sector and civil society are participating in the Irena’s seventh Assembly, the highest decisionmaking body of the agency. They discuss charting a pathway to a sustainable energy future. The assembly also marks the opening of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and precedes the World Future Energy Summit (WFES).