Abu Dhabi in solar show-off
OIL-RICH Abu Dhabi on Sunday officially opened the world’s largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, which cost $600 million to build and will provide electricity to 20,000 homes.
The 100-megawatt Shams 1 was the world’s largest operating concentrated solar power plant, Sultan al-Jaber, the head of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, which oversees the emirate’s plan to generate seven per cent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020, said.
“Today, Shams 1 is the largest CSP plant in every sense,” Santiago Seage, the chief executive of Abengoa Solar, a partner in the project, said.
CSP uses a system of mirrors or lenses, whereas many other solar plants use photovoltaic technology to harness solar power.
Masdar produced 10 per cent of the world’s concentrated solar power, Seage said.
The company’s energy portfolio represents 68 per cent of the renewable energy produced in the Gulf region, where clean energy remains in its infancy.
The solar park features long lines of parabolic mirrors spread over an area equivalent to 285 soccer pitches in the desert of the Western Region, about 120 kilometres southwest of Abu Dhabi city.
The 192 rows of loops collect heat that drives turbines to generate power that will save 175,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to taking 15,000 cars off the road.
Automatic trucks are deployed to dust the mirrors in this location, where sand poses a serious challenge to the efficiency of heat collectors.
Masdar owns 60 per cent of the project, while France’s Total and Spain’s Abengoa Solar own 20 per cent each.
Abu Dhabi is the wealthiest of the seven sheikhdoms that make up the federation of the United Arab Emirates.
It sits on proven oil reserves of almost 100 billion barrels — 95 per cent of the UAE’s reserves, which are the world’s seventh-largest. It also has a wealth of natural gas.
UAE leaders, including President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayad Al-Nahayan, and the Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, were on site for the plant’s ceremonial opening.
“The UAE is the first nation in the Middle East and OPEC to begin producing renewable energy, in addition to having hydrocarbon exports,” Jaber said.
Oil company Total’s head of new energies, Philippe Boisseau, said the Shams venture was a natural outcome of Total’s relationship with Abu Dhabi in the energy sector.
“We share a vision of the need to diversify sources of energy,” Boisseau said.
In recent years, Abu Dhabi has aimed to establish a name as a centre for renewable energy, beginning with forming Masdar, then becoming host of the renewable-energy organisation IRENA.
“This is an extraordinary moment for us,” IRENA chief Adnan Amin said after the plant’s inauguration.
He said Shams 1 was the “first massive step” towards having the oil-rich Middle East also becoming a centre for renewable energy.