Dewa receives four consultancy contract bids for phase six of Dubai solar park

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park set to have a total capacity of 5,000MW by 2030

An aerial view of Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park in Dubai in January 2022. Solar is essential to the UAE's new energy mix. All photos by Pawan Singh / The National

The fifth phase of a clean energy project at the Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park will further help reduce carbon emissions.

An aerial view of the Solar Park in the Dubai desert.

Marco Garcia, chief commercial officer of Nextracker, a US company which has provided photovoltaic technology used in the project.

The Innovation Centre at the MBR Solar Park in Dubai, where machine learning is being utilised to track direct sunlight to maximise efficient energy capture, storage and transmission.

The solar powered panels follow the path of the sun to help the emirate reach its clean energy transition goals.

Omar Al Hassan, chief executive of Shuaa Energy 3, the company operating the scheme, says the vast project will ultimately create clean energy to power more than 250,000 houses in Dubai.

Robotic cleaning systems are installed on the solar panels.

More than 2.5 million photovoltaic modules have been fitted during phase 5 of the project.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has received four bids from international companies for a consultancy contract for the sixth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

Dewa did not specify details about the companies or when the contract will be awarded.

The production capacity of the sixth phase of the solar park will be 900 megawatts, the utility said.

The overall project, the largest single-site solar park in the world using the independent power producer (IPP) model, is expected to have a total capacity of 5,000MW by 2030.

"Since its launch, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park’s projects have received considerable interest from global developers, which reflects the confidence of investors from around the world in Dewa’s major projects in collaboration with the private sector using the … IPP model," said Saeed Al Tayer, managing director and chief executive of Dewa.

The current production capacity of the solar park is 1,627MW using photovoltaic solar panels, he said.

Dewa will introduce other projects at the solar park with a total capacity of 1,233MW using photovoltaic solar panels and concentrated solar power technology, which raises the share of clean energy production within Dubai's energy mix to 11.5 per cent.

This is expected to reach 14 per cent by the end of this year, Mr Al Tayer said.

The utility is working on the fifth phase of the project in partnership with a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power and Gulf Investment Corporation, using the IPP model.

In 2019, Dewa achieved a world record by receiving the lowest bid of $1.6953 cents for every kilowatt hour for the fifth phase.

It said last month that work on the fifth phase, which has a total investment of about Dh2.06 billion ($561 million), was "progressing as planned”.

The fifth phase will provide clean energy to more than 270,000 residences in Dubai and will result in a reduction of 1.18 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. It will be commissioned in stages until 2023.

The fourth phase will provide clean energy for about 320,000 residences and lead to a reduction of 1.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions every year.

Dubai aims to meet all of its power needs using clean energy sources by 2050.