Solar rooftops in Dubai double in less than a year

Dubai buildings with solar rooftops have nearly doubled to 435 in only 10 months as the emirate works to have all rooftops fitted with photovoltaic (PV) panels.

More than 200 new buildings have been equipped with solar power since November with a total capacity of 15.6 megawatts as part of the Shams Dubai initiative, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) said yesterday.The initiative, launched in 2015, aims to have solar panels on all rooftops across the emirate by 2030. “Shams Dubai allows customers to avoid using very expensive power storage systems by connecting the PV panels to the network,” said Saeed Al Tayer, the managing director and chief executive of Dewa.

The power generated from the solar panels will cover the customer’s needs, but under a net metering system, any surplus power will be fed back into the grid with a credit seen on the customer’s electricity bill.

To help residential and businesses consider solar, Dewa created a solar calculator last month,located on its website. The calculator helps provide customers with comparisons to help promote the installation of solar power.

Other tools available to those interested in installing solar panel systems include Green Deal Dubai, a crowdsourcing platform to help drive down the costs of solar thanks to providing an aggregated list of providers.