São Paulo – Last Sunday (17th), the largest concentrated solar power plant (CSP) in the world was inaugurated in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The main difference from regular plants is the fact that this technology enables power to be generated on cloudy days and at night. Shams 1, in the Madinat Zayed desert, 120 kilometres away from Abu Dhabi, will generate 100 mil megawatts (MW) of electric power, enough to supply 20,000 households.
The project cost US$ 600 million over a three-year span, and covers an area equivalent to 285 football fields. According to the French government-owned company Total, one of the shareholders in the project, should the plant produce electric power from fossil fuels, it would release 175,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.
Total owns a 20% stake in Shams, the company that manages the plant. Spain’s Abengoa owns another 20%. The main stakeholder in the project is Masdar, the Emirati clean energy company, with a 60% stake.
The concentrated solar power technology used at the plant enables electricity to be produced even when there is no sunlight. Unlike other solar parks, Madinat Zayed captures the heat from the sun, which warms up a pipe filled with oil. The oil then heats up a water-filled pipe. The water evaporates and sets a turbine in motion. The turbine, in turn, generates electric power.
The Masdar CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said the inauguration of Shams 1 represents a step forward in Middle East sustainable energy development. The CEO of Abengoa, Santiago Seage, said the United Arab Emirates hold half the world’s renewable energy potential, and that the plant may encourage other countries in the region to “follow on the steps” of Abu Dhabi. The CEO of Total, Christophe de Margerie, said this was the greatest step ever taken in region with regard to sunlight processing.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
