Oil rich Abu Dhabi goes solar

[sajiv]

Dubai,  Oil rich Abu Dhabi which boasts one tenth of world's crude reserves has gone solar, commissioning a 10 megawatt plant in the region's first carbon neutral Masdar City near the capital's airport.

Power from the solar plant will be connected to the grid in March, for the first time, by the renewable energy company, Masdar. The solar plant, is designed to cover the power needs of the construction phase of the Masdar City project, a carbon-neutral city being built near the Dubai airport.

When the Masdar Institute opens its doors in September to its first batch of postgraduate research students, it too, will be powered by the field of dark panels converting the sun's rays into electricity.

"Excess energy generated will be supplied to the Abu Dhabi grid, providing Abu Dhabi customers with their first experience of alternative energy," the company said in a statement yesterday.

It is not only a first for Abu Dhabi and the UAE, but also for the entire West Asia, where facilities of this kind and scope are lacking, the National daily said.

The new plant, which cost Dh185 million (50.3 million US dollar) to build, saves 15,000 tonnes of Carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere every year. It is the first step in Masdar's programme to bring clean energy technologies to the UAE, where residents currently have one of the world's largest carbon footprints.

Designing the 200,000 square metre installation took two months.

At present, half of the 87,777 solar modules comprising the system have already been installed. Two suppliers Suntech from China and First Solar from America were chosen for the modules.

Masdar's solar plans do not end with the 10-megawatt farm. The company has invested in a factory in Germany, projected to produce 70 megawatts of thin-film panels per year. It will start production later this year, and will act as a blueprint for technology and knowledge transfer to a 140-megawatt Abu Dhabi plant, which will begin production in 2010.