A landmark utility-scale wind undertaking is now operational within the United Arab Emirates (UAE), regardless of earlier issues that large-scale wind power shouldn’t be viable owing to the area’s low wind speeds.
Masdar in October 2023 inaugurated a 27-MW wind farm situated on Delma Island in Abu Dhabi, one in all 4 wind farms that make up the United Arab Emirate’s first utility-scale wind undertaking. Courtesy: Masdar
Abu Dhabi Power Co.—higher often called Masdar—on Oct. 5 inaugurated a 103.5-MW undertaking that spans 4 areas. Three are in Abu Dhabi (Determine 4): Sir Bani Yas Island (45 MW), Delma Island (27 MW), and Al Sila (27 MW). A fourth 4.5-MW set up was accomplished in Al Halah, Fujairah. Emirates Water and Electrical energy Firm (EWEC) will buy the facility from the Sir Bani Yas Island, Al Sila, and Delma Island initiatives, by way of an influence buy settlement.
The undertaking was enabled by “improvements inside local weather expertise and UAE-led experience made wind energy doable,” Masdar mentioned. “Greater turbine sizes, decrease {hardware} costs, and the invention of a singular climate phenomenon that generated excessive winds at evening made this undertaking scalable and economically viable,” it defined. “As wind energy is strongest at evening within the UAE, this enhances the nation’s current solar energy technology, additional diversifying the nations renewable power combine,” it mentioned.
Masdar will now work with world expertise leaders and turbine producers to “commercialize and additional” utility-scale low-wind-speed initiatives. “The undertaking is making a basis of important scientific wind information, which can type the idea of the UAE’s subsequent part of growth,” it famous.
The event marks notable progress for the UAE, a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) area that has traditionally relied closely on fossil fuels for energy and earnings. Whereas whole electrical energy capability has grown by nearly 10 GW since 2012, reaching 43.5 GW in 2021, about 44% of that development was derived from fossil fuels. Nevertheless, for the reason that area launched into an effort to construct out its renewables with the launch of the 100-MW Shams undertaking—the primary concentrated solar energy plant to be developed within the Center East—a decade in the past, it has considerably expanded its clear power portfolio with new photo voltaic PV and waste-to-energy-plants. One instance is the 1.2-GW Sweihan photo voltaic park in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE has additionally launched nuclear energy. Three of 4 deliberate nuclear models on the Barakah energy plant, the UAE’s first industrial nuclear plant, are actually presently operational, and as soon as accomplished, the 5.6-GW undertaking within the Al Dhafra area, is anticipated to fulfill as much as 25% of the UAE’s electrical energy demand.
Earlier this yr, notably, the seven-emirate union adopted a Nationwide Power Technique that set out a selected goal power distribution that can meet its financial wants and environmental aspirations. The technique requires 44% clear power, 38% pure gasoline, 12% clear coal, and 6% nuclear power by 2050. It’ll require procuring 14 GW of renewable capability, up from about 2.4 GW in 2020.
Together with wind energy, the UAE has explored hydropower, regardless of its restricted pure water our bodies. The Dubai Electrical energy and Water Authority (DEWA) is presently constructing the 250-MW (1,360-MWh) Hatta pumped storage hydropower plant. When that undertaking is commissioned in 2024, it will likely be the primary hydropower plant of its sort on the Arabian Peninsula.
The area additionally plans to increase its fossil fleet, nevertheless. The two.4-GW Hassyan energy plant—underneath development in Saih Shuaib, Dubai—is slated to start working this yr. Whereas initially designed to function on coal, the undertaking was switched to function on pure gasoline in February. The plant will function 4 600-MW ultrasupercritical (USC) boilers, steam generators, and mills. Specs additionally name for the plant to be carbon seize prepared.
—Sonal Patel is a senior affiliate editor for POWER.