Dubai: Tariff for large-scale PV hits new low at $0.024/kWh

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) has announced it will expand Phase IV of the 5 GW Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum Solar Park by another 250 MW. The power utility has also revealed that the PPA with the project developer, local energy giant ACWA Power has been amended, and that the new PV portion of Phase IV, which originally included only a 700 MW CSP power plant planned to sell power at $0.073/kWh, will sell power at a tariff of $0.024/kWh. This price equals that of a 1.17 GW solar project currently under construction in Abu Dhabi.

November 5, 2018 Emiliano Bellini

An existing portion of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

Photo: DEWA

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) has announced that Phase IV of its 5 GW Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum Solar Park, originally planned to deploy 700 MW of CSP capacity, will now also include a PV section of 250 MW.

The power utility also said that the PPA it awarded to Saudi energy giant, ACWA Power for the construction of the 950 MW plant has now been amended and that the price for the sale of electricity from the new PV section has been set at $0.024/kWh. This price equals the lowest price ever recorded for a large-scale solar project in the Emirates – $0.0242/kWh – which was offered in March 2017 by the joint venture of JinkoSolar and Marubeni for a 1.17 GW solar project in Abu Dhabi. The previous lowest price in Dubai was that of Phase III of the Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum Solar Park, which is planned to have a capacity of 800 MW and is currently being developed by a consortium formed by Masdar, the Abu Dhabi-based developer of renewable energy, Spain-based GranSolar and Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), which is a unit of the Saudi Arabian firm, Abdul Latif Jameel. In May 2016, the consortium offered a tariff of $0.029/kWh, at the time the world’s lowest solar bid ever recorded.

As for the 700 MW CSP section of Phase IV, ACWA and DEWA had agreed a price of $0.073/kWh. It will consist of a 600 MW parabolic basin complex and a 100 MW solar tower. “The project will have the world’s tallest solar tower at 260 metres, and the largest thermal energy storage capacity in the world of 15 hours, which allows for energy generation round the clock,” DEWA stressed in its statement.

For the huge solar complex, DEWA has recently announced plans to include a hydrogen plant and a storage facility, while also issuing a tender to seek IPP advisory services for Phase V of the project.

Construction on the 800 MW Phase III of the project, based exclusively on the PV technology, started in January 2017. The first 200 MW section of Phase III came online in May and at the time, French project developer EDF said the following two 300 MW units would be commissioned in 2019 and 2020

Phase I of the solar park, with an installed power of only 13 MW, was completed by First Solar in late 2013, while phase II, with capacity of 200 MW, was built by ACWA Power and Spanish engineering services provider TSK. Both phases also rely exclusively on the PV technology.

“The solar park is one of the most important projects supporting the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 with a total capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030 and investments worth AED 50 billion,” DEWA stressed in Saturday's statement.

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