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Al Dhafra project will provide enough electricity for 160,000 homes in UAE, says French partner
French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire (centre) gestures during a tour of the Al Dhafra solar photovoltaic independent power producer (IPP) project. – Agence France-Presse
One of the world’s largest solar plants will become fully operational in the United Arab Emirates this year, months before hosting United Nations climate talks, a partner company said on Tuesday.
The UAE is spending billions of dollars to develop enough renewable energy to meet half of its needs by 2050 and plans to achieve net-zero domestic carbon emissions by that year.
Olivier Bordes, regional director of EDF Renewables in France, said the Al Dhafra project, located in the desert about 35 kilometers south of Abu Dhabi, would provide enough food for 160,000 households in the country of 10 million people. electricity.
“It started producing its first kilowatt-hour of electricity at the end of last year and should be operational by summer,” Borders told AFP.
Once fully operational, it will generate up to 2.1 GW of power, he added.
Emirati companies TAQA and Masdar own 60% of the project, which they describe as the world’s largest single-site solar power plant. The remainder is owned by a consortium of EDF Renewables and China’s JinkoPower Technology.
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The giant double-sided solar panel factory can rotate to face the sun and covers an area of more than 20 square kilometers (nearly 5,000 acres).
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire visited the site on Tuesday to welcome the “extremely close cooperation” between Paris and Abu Dhabi in the field of renewable energy.
Le Maire, who is also on a regional visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, said he wanted to “support” Gulf producers on a path to “decarbonization”.
Renewable energy company Masdar said on Tuesday that Emirati and French companies “cooperate globally in the development, investment and operation of more than 6.2 GW of clean and renewable energy projects”.
Companies from both countries have also “mobilized more than $6 billion in investments and emitted about 10 million tons of carbon dioxide a year,” Masdar said in a statement.
The UAE will host the COP28 climate summit in November and December.
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