The UAE is spending billions to develop enough renewable energy to cover half of its needs by 2050, and is targeting net-zero domestic carbon emissions by that year. Hence, one of the world's biggest solar plants will become fully operational this year in the UAE, months before it hosts UN climate talks, as revealed by a partner company on Tuesday.
As per Olivier Bordes, regional director for France's EDF Renewables, Al Dhafra project, located in the desert some 35 kilometres south of Abu Dhabi, will provide enough electricity for 160,000 households in the country of 10 million people. "It started producing its first kilowatt hours of electricity at the end of last year and should officially go into service before the summer," Bordes told AFP. Once fully operational, it will produce up to 2.1 gigawatts, he added.
Emirati companies TAQA and Masdar own 60 per cent of the project, which they describe as the world's largest single-site solar plant. The remainder is owned by a consortium formed by EDF Renewables and China's Jinko Power Technology.
The plant of giant, double-sided solar panels, which rotate to face the sun, occupies a site spanning more than 20 square kilometres (nearly 5,000 acres).
France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, visiting the site on Tuesday, welcomed the "extremely close cooperation" between Paris and Abu Dhabi in the field of renewable energy. Le Maire, who also stopped in Saudi Arabia and Qatar in a regional tour, said he wanted to "support" oil-producing Gulf countries on their path to "decarbonisation".
Renewable energy firm Masdar said on Tuesday that Emirati and French companies have "partnered in the development, investment and operation of over 6.2 gigawatts of clean and renewable energy programmes across the globe".
Businesses from both countries have also "mobilised over US $6 billion in investment, displacing some 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually", Masdar said in a statement.
The UAE will host the COP28 climate summit in November and December.
