Abu Dhabi is set to become the home of a massive 5.2-GW solar farm, claiming the top spot on the global solar energy plant leaderboard.
This gigascale project is being developed in the capital of the United Arab Emirates by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company also known as Masdar, in collaboration with Emirates Water and Electricity Company. It will be the world’s first ’24/7′ solar photovoltaic plant integrated with a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).
This means that the solar plant will be able to provide energy continuously, even when sunlight is not available – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
With the 5.2-GW solar plant and the 19-GWh BESS, the project aims to deliver up to 1 GW of baseload power daily through solar panels, which is sufficient to power 750,000 households.
Masdar
The estimated requirement for Abu Dhabi’s 5.2-GW plant is nearly 10 million solar panels, as stated by the US Department of Energy to generate just 1 GW of power.
To put the size into perspective, the Al Dhafra solar plant in Abu Dhabi, inaugurated in November 2023, has 4 million panels spread over 8.1 square miles. Therefore, Masdar’s new project will likely need approximately 20.25 square miles of space – nearly equivalent to 10,000 football fields.
The project is expected to cost US$6 billion and is scheduled for commissioning in 2027. According to Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar, speaking to CNBC, it will be “managed through a smart integrated solution to allow dispatchability at any point of time during the day or night.”
With the 5.2 GW capacity, this project surpasses the 3.5-GW solar farm in China’s Xinjiang province, previously known as the world’s largest solar farm. This achievement not only gives UAE significant recognition but also contributes towards its Net Zero by 2050 objective.
Source: Masdar via PR Newswire
