UAE Inaugurated World’s Largest Concentrated Solar Power Plant

President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, of the the United Arab Emirates inaugurated the SHAMS-1 100-megawatt solar power plant last Sunday. The concentrated solar power (CSP) plant is the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world. It was a joint venture between Masdar, a renewable energy company based in Abu Dhabi, with its partners, Total SA and Abengoa SA.

Concentrated Solar Power

Located in the desert region west of the capital, it is a fully functioning CSP which can light up 20,000 homes in the UAE. According to Masdar’s CEO, Sultan al Jaber, the plant represents 10% of the world’s CSP in terms of power output, as well as 68% of the renewable energy production within the Gulf region.

Sultan al Jaber expressed the hope that at a cost of $600 million, the CSP would be able to provide 7% of the country’s energy use by 2020. Aside from SHAMS 1, Masdar also has a 10 megawatt solar power plant at the Masdar city development. The company also plans to put up a 100 megawatt photovoltaic plant.

There are also plans to use the CSP technology to improve the country’s oil production, as well as joint ventures with other countries in the Middle East for possible renewable energy projects.

Increased production and expanding interests

The UAE is one of the largest oil producers in the world. Their current production capacity is 2.6 million barrels per day (mbpd). They plan to increase this to 3 mbpd, after consulting with other OPEC members. Dr. Matar Hamed Al Neyadi, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Energy mentioned this target in Turkmenistan where he was attending an international conference on Turkmenistan’s oil and gas assets. He also mentioned that the UAE’s civilian nuclear program is on track and will be ready to start operations in 2017.

Al Neyadi was in Turkmenistan as the UAE was also interested in possibly expanding their business interests to that country. Currently, there are a lot of other companies already in the process of negotiations with Turkmenistan for the development of their oil and gas resources.