Yellow Door Energy (YDE), a Dubai-based firm that invests in and operates solar and energy efficiency assets, has signed an agreement with AMI Middle East, a leading player in the UAE’s freight forwarding industry, to install a 615 kWp solar PV plant at the AMI facility located in Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), Dubai.

Yellow Door Energy will manage the construction, operation and maintenance of the solar PV plant for the next 25 years.

AMI Middle East is the first freight forwarder in the UAE to use solar energy, said a statement.  

The solar PV system will generate approximately 950,628 kWh per year and reduce CO2 emissions by 668 tons annually, which is equivalent to planting 17,314 trees seedlings per year. Construction on the project will commence in April 2017 and the plant is expected to be operational by the third quarter of this year.

Jeremy Crane, CEO of Yellow Door Energy, said: “AMI has been a leader in their industry in using clean energy sources, and we are proud to be supporting the next stage of their journey towards sustainability. The project will help AMI meet their medium to long-term energy needs and achieve significant savings on their electricity bills, while reducing their annual carbon footprint. Importantly, the solar lease structure eliminates the need for investment from AMI, which means they will only need to pay for the electricity they use.”

He added: “By introducing to the market a viable leasing mechanism that transfers the construction and performance risk of the system onto the lessor, Yellow Door Energy is making it easier and risk-free for businesses to transition to solar energy, thus giving a tremendous boost to the UAE’s clean energy push.”

The rooftop solar PV installation represents another important success under the ‘Shams Dubai’ initiative, launched by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) to regulate solar energy generation in buildings, and moves the emirate one step closer to achieving its vision of 7 per cent renewable energy by 2020 and 15 per cent by 2030. – TradeArabia News Service