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PROJECT PROFILE
benefits it will bring to Abu Dhabi, and the UAE as a whole, and what sort of challenges were encountered during the construction and development process. Now that the solar plant has been in operation for almost a year, what have been some of the biggest tangible benefits realised?
ast July, on the eve of the United Nations Abu Dhabi Climate Meeting, the Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) announced that the massive Noor Abu Dhabi solar plant had commenced commercial operations, marking a significant moment in history for renewable energy advocates and for sustainable energy as a whole. Not only is the project the world’s largest single solar plant, but it will offset Abu Dhabi’s CO2 emissions by one million metric tons, the equivalent of taking 200,000 cars off the roads. With 3.2 million solar panels installed across an eight square kilometre site and producing 1.2GW of power, the Noor Abu Dhabi solar plant is expected to provide enough power to meet the equivalent demand of 90,000 people. Built at a cost of $871.1 million, the plant is located at Sweihan in Abu Dhabi and electricity generated by the facility
Sustainable future Noor Abu Dhabi has set the benchmark for sustainable energy projects across the globe.
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Number of months taken to construct the plant
will be sold to EWEC under a 25-year power purchase agreement. The project was developed as a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Power Corporation and a consortium of Japan’s Marubeni Corp and China’s Jinko Solar Holding. Construction of the solar plant was completed within 23 months, as was originally planned in the construction schedule. In order to reach this milestone on time, more than 2,900 people worked on site at peak construction. With the plant now operational for almost a year, Big Project ME spoke to EWEC to find out how the mammoth renewable energy project came to be, what sort of tangible
Noor Abu Dhabi directly supports the UAE’s Vision 2021, which has set out diverse social, economic, and sustainable objects for the country. The project serves as an important benchmark for what we can achieve when it comes to large-scale clean energy projects. It also highlights how the UAE economy is successfully adopting new economic models, and capitalising on global economic partnerships. Since the commencement of operations at Noor Abu Dhabi, the plant has provided a range of benefits. The first of these is the significant deployment of state-of-the-art monocrystalline photovoltaic (PV) module technology with a capacity of 1.2 GW. The use of this technology has meant that the solar energy produced is at a competitive tariff compared to alternative resources. Importantly, Noor Abu Dhabi is helping to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million metric tons per year, the equivalent of removing 200,000 cars off the roads. The cost competitiveness of the winning bid for Noor Abu Dhabi also
The project serves as an important benchmark for what we can achieve when it comes to large-scale clean energy projects. It also highlights how the UAE economy is successfully adopting new economic models” September2020 May-June 2019| |MEConstructionNews.com MEConstructionNews.com