Plant’s capacity enough to cover the demand of 90,000 individuals
Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) has announced that ‘Noor Abu Dhabi’, the world’s largest single solar project, with a capacity of 1,177MW, has started commercial operation.
The project will enable Abu Dhabi to increase its production of renewable energy and reduce the use of natural gas in electricity generation, helping to make energy more sustainable and efficient and reducing the Emirate’s carbon dioxide emissions by 1mn metric tons per year, the equivalent of removing 200,000 cars off the roads.
The AED 3.2bn (US$ 870mn) solar plant, located at Sweihan in Abu Dhabi, is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Power Corporation and a consortium of Japan’s Marubeni Corp and China’s Jinko Solar Holding.
Providing enough capacity to cover the demand of 90,000 people, the plant features more than 3.2 million solar panels, installed across an 8km2 site.
The attainment of the Commercial Operation Date (COD) deadline means the plant is now completed and has started full commercial operation. To reach this milestone on time, over 2,900 people were working on site during peak construction.
“This is in line with the sector’s transformation strategy by providing alternative sources of energy that can help us improve the sustainability of the water and electricity sector,” remarked Mohammad Hassan Al Suwaidi, Chairman, EWEC.
“Noor Abu Dhabi will further contribute to the UAE’s renewable sector, exponentially increasing the existing solar capacity of Abu Dhabi, as well as adding to the continuously growing solar capacity of the UAE,” commented Othman Jumaa Al Ali, EWEC’s CEO.
