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The world’s largest solar power plant is now fully operational in UAE

Catwell

As an engineer, I expect about 10% of everything will fail. Imagining having to fix 320,000 solar panels sounds rough...

 

On June 29th, the world’s largest solar plant project with 3.2 million solar panels installed across an 8-kilometer site, the Noor Abu Dhabi became fully operational, with a capacity of 1,177MW. There are also differences between this project and a ‘solar park.’ A solar park is usually an area of land marked to harness solar power and usually boast multiple readily available grid connections that can support the development of several projects by different companies. The Noor Abu-Dhabi project is a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Power Corporation, Japan’s Marubeni Corp and Chinese solar manufacturer Jinko Solar.

 

The project will have enough electricity in demand for up to 90,000 people, effectively offsetting emirate’s CO2 emissions by 1 million metric tons, which can remove up to 200,000 cars off the road.

 

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The project consists of 3.2 million solar panels across an 8-km site. (Image Credit: WAM)

 

The $870 million project came together from a process that will see electricity sold from the site to Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) for 2.4 cents/kWh, which is the highest selling price for any completed solar project. The project was developed by Indian firm Sterling & Wilson, which involved 3,000 on-site workers during its highest activity peak.

 

"Noor Abu Dhabi will generate renewable energy and will enable us to improve the use of our natural resources,” said Othman Jumaa Al Ali, CEO of EWEC. “The fact that a project of such scale has been successfully completed on time and on budget highlights our commitment to ensuring sustainable energy for the future, and it is a true testament of the Emirate’s delivery capabilities to execute world-class energy projects."

 

Yoshiaki Yokota, Chief Operating Officer, Power Business Division of Marubeni Corporation said: "This project represents a significant milestone not only for the United Arab Emirates and the region but for the global solar industry and for the future of renewable energy. As the Managing Member of this project, Marubeni will contribute to the UAE Energy Strategy through the project’s operations phase and we continue to contribute to the global energy sector as a leading energy solutions provider."

 

However, if history is any indication of solar records falling quickly, the NoorAbu Dhabi project may not go very far at all, with a 2 Gigawatt power project in agreement by EWEC earlier this year.

 

An agreement has also been put in place for 2.6 Gigawatts of solar power in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Now that there’s financial stability in the country along with the growing need for electricity, land space and more sun, the Arabian Gulf may as well boast about this record for a long time.

 

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  • in reply to ralphjy

    Ralph,

     

    Where I worked had a largish solar panel installation, 10 kW I think it was, which was on the side of a warehouse (this was the only place available). Even with a vertical installation, it will gradually get 'dusty' and cleaning will increase output. A colleague was working on what happens when part of an installation is in shadow and the rest isn't as apparently this can lead to some unwanted effects. For domestic systems this isn't really a problem as they are quite small but for these much larger systems shadows from planes and similar might be a problem.

     

    I was also fascinated by the fact that solar panels are less efficient as they get hotter as they will in sunshine, because the semi-conductor voltage is inversely proportional to temperature. So in cooler times, such as winter, they become more efficient, which is good as there is less sunlight anyway, and then in summer when there is much more sunlight,, they become less efficient and therefore avoid thermal runaway, but still produce more power.

     

    Dubbie

  • Quite an impressive feat. A significant problem that I didn’t realize until I installed my solar panels is that they  can be difficult to keep clean.  I have a problem here in Oregon with tree pollen.  Hopefully they don’t have dust storms image.  And they must lose a lot of capacity due to the high ambient temperature.  I’m sure they have factored in all those issues in their design.  I’d like to see more large scale solar in the US.

  • in reply to dubbie

    The use of solar in the UK became popular due to the government incentives (FIT Scheme) that provided payment based upon the kW rating of the installation rather than the power actually being put back into the Grid.

     

    That is starting to change now and payback takes about 10 years on average, so you are likely to see the number of new installations starting to fall.

     

    Kind regards.

  • It is very interesting to see these really large solar panel systems being implemented, especially when there is so much sunshine available. I recently returned from south Spain and there was barely a solar panel in side - yet plenty of sunshine. Yet I can walk down my own road and see solar panel installations on many houses.

     

    Dubbie