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Dubai’s hosting of the second Global Solar Leaders’ Summit has demonstrated the urgency to give impetus to renewable energy — essentially solar power. The UAE’s economic diversification plan and UAE Vision 2021 call for the need to tap the energy in the sunshine. Solar power will help reduce the carbon footprint and put the country on the road to sustainable
development.
International Energy Agency has underlined that by 2050, solar energy will outpace fossil fuels, wind, hydro and nuclear power. The UAE is adopting solar power in a big way and giving it the much-needed attention. Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 aims to generate 7% of the city’s energy from clean sources by 2020 and 75% by 2050. The second phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park — the largest single-site solar park across the globe — has been launched. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has also fast-tracked the first project of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). It will generate 1,000MW by 2030. The Masdar City Solar PV plant is producing 17,500 MW-hours of electricity each year. It offsets 15,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. Masdar has also powered solar plants in the Pacific islands.
On Sunday, a landmark development took place in the solar energy sector. Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company (ADWEC) received six bids to build a 350MW solar plant in Sweihan. Of these bids, the lowest equated to 2.42 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). This was cited by ADWEA as one of the lowest costs for solar power generation by a commercial project in the world.
Solar power can only become commercially viable when it becomes
cost-effective. And the UAE has shown to the world the way ahead to make it cheap and popular. As the Sweihan bids show, solar power can revolutionize the energy market. The challenge lies in harnessing it effectively. A lot of sustained planning and effort has to go into a solar initiative. Adopting world-class practices and the latest technologies are paramount to get maximum benefit from a solar plant.
The UAE, which has abundant sunshine through the year, is using latest technologies and storage options to make solar power cost-worthy. With more R&D going into solar storage technologies, solar energy will reach every nook and corner of the UAE in a few years from now. The corporates too have to be instrumental in achieving the solar goal. They have to think futuristically and pump in more money to bring innovation into research. The innovations might not bring immediate revenues, but will pay rich dividends in the long run. These innovative developments will make solar energy more accessible.
A recent report sent the alarm bells ringing when it warned that weather events like heat waves and droughts triggered by warming will reduce the global energy production. There are projections that if warming is not checked by 2050, the capacity of hydro-electric plants will be cut by four percent and that of thermoelectric ones by 12 percent. Less generation would mean consumers would have to pay more for electricity. In such a situation, it is imperative that renewables are utilized. Economies that do not realize the potential that lies in renewables will lose the race. Solar power can pave the way for a green economy and make the future clean and secure for our grandchildren.