Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) said work on the 800-megawatt (MW) Phase Three of the Dh50-billion ($13.6 billion) Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is progressing as per schedule with nearly 22 per cent of the project already completed.

It is the largest single-site solar park in the world, based on the IPP model, with a planned capacity of 1,000MW by 2020 and 5,000MW by 2030 which will eventually save approximately 6.5 million tonnes per annum in emissions, said the statement from Dewa.

The World Expo will be connected to the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which will provide it with 400MW of power, it added.

The implementation progress of the third phase will be completed by 2020, remarked Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the managing director and chief executive of Dewa following a field visit to the Solar Park site.

According to him, the third phase will be completed in three stages over a 16 sq km area.

The first 200MW stage is expected to be operational in the first half of 2018, while the 300MW second stage will be operational in 2019, and the third 300MW stage will be completed in the first half of 2020.

Dewa had registered a levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) of $2.99 cents per kilowatt hour (kW/h) for the third phase of the solar park, to be operational in 2020, stated Al Tayer.

He was briefed on the progress of the third phase of the solar park, by representatives from Shuaa Energy 2, which was established by Dewa with a 60 per cent stake in the company.

Shuaa Energy 2 was launched in partnership with the Masdar-led consortium, and Électricité de France (EDF), through its subsidiary EDF Energies Nouvelles, who own the remaining 40 per cent of Shuaa Energy 2.

The Dewa chief was accompanied by Nasser Lootah, the executive VP (Generation); Abdullah Obaidullah, the executive VP (Water & Civil); Jamal Shaheen Al Hammadi, VP (Special Projects) and Mohamed Al Shamsi, VP (Water & Civil Projects and Water Maintenance).

A detailed presentation was also given by representatives from the international consortium led by the renewable energy contractor GranSolar from Spain, handling the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) which includes Acciona from Spain and Ghella from Italy.

Al Tayer pointed out that the solar park projects and its various phases were aimed at achieving the targets of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050.

"We aim to provide seven per cent of Dubai’s energy from clean sources by 2020, 25 per cent by 2030, and 75 per cent by 2050," he added.-TradeArabia News Service