The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is on the verge of taking the world’s fourth largest solar power generation farm online, according to the boss of a leading domestic energy supplier.
Jasim Thabet, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company or TAQA, said on Tuesday (October 3, 2023) that the solar farm – with a plant capacity of 2GW located in Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra region – was just weeks away.
When online, the farm would be the fourth largest in the world by capacity behind only China’s Golmund Solar Park (2.8GW), and India’s Bhadla (2.25GW) and Pavagada (2.05GW) Solar Parks.
“On the renewable energy front, in a couple of weeks, we [TAQA] will be inaugurating one of the world’s largest photovoltaic projects. When it is fully operational, the plant is going to help contribute to a reduction of 2.4 million tons of carbon emissions,” Thabet told delegates at energy conference ADIPEC 2023 being held in Abu Dhabi.
The farm is being built by TAQA in partnership with Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy market leader. France’s EDF Renewables and China’s JinkoPower are also consortium partners. The project was first announced in 2020.
Thabet also claimed the farm would be a best-in-class offering in terms of cost efficiencies since it is “one of the world’s most cost-efficient with a tariff rate of 1.32 cents / KWh.”
The big reveal comes just a day after his peer and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Suhail Al Mazrouei told ADIPEC delegates the country was on track to generate a total capacity of 19.8GW of clean energy by 2030.
Describing the plan as a bid for ‘Fast tracking the energy transition’, Al Mazrouei said, “We have one of the fastest-growing clean energy industries in the world. In addition, the UAE seeks to become a leading producer and supplier of low carbon hydrogen, working towards producing 1.4 million metric tons of it per annum by 2031 and 15 million metric tons per annum by 2050.”
The TAQA solar farm’s capacity will relegate neighboring Dubai’s as yet to be fully completed Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park (1.63GW) to fifth on the global list. However, the Dubai farm’s capacity is projected to be in the region of a world-leading 5GW upon completion in 2027.
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