Siemens provides four steam turbines to Concentrated Solar Power plant in Dubai

As part of its ongoing support to the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and its role as a premier partner to Expo 2020 Dubai, Siemens will provide four steam turbine generator sets and auxiliary equipment for a 700-megawatt (MW) concentrated solar power (CSP) project in Dubai. The facility will be the largest single-site CSP plant in the world and comprises phase four of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

The Siemens scope of supply includes three solar steam turbines with a power output of 206 megawatts (MW) each for three parabolic trough units and another solar steam turbine with an output of 108.5 megawatts (MW) for one central tower unit. The first phase of the CSP project will include one 206-megawatt (MW) parabolic trough unit and the 108.5-megawatt (MW) central tower unit, and is scheduled to be commissioned during Expo 2020 Dubai.

DEWA awarded the project in 2017 to an ACWA Power-led consortium that offered a record-low levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of USD 7.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. This price level is comparable to fossil fuel-based generation without subsidy. Like fossil-fuel plants, the CSP facility will provide reliable and dispatchable electricity throughout the night.

ACWA Power together with DEWA and Silk Road Fund have established Noor Energy 1 to develop, own and operate the project under a 35 years Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Shanghai Electric is the EPC Contractor and NOMAC is the O&M Operator. Noor Energy 1is expected to achieve an annual savings of 2.4 million tons of carbon dioxide. This will support the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 goal of increasing the share of clean energy used in Dubai to 25 percent by 2030 and 75 percent by 2050. It also will support the UAE Energy Strategy 2050, which targets 44 percent of the nation’s energy coming from renewable sources by 2050.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is the largest single-site solar park in the world, with a planned capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020 and 5,000 megawatts (MW) by 2030. The 13-megawatt (MW) first phase became operational on October 22, 2013; the 200-megawatt (MW) second phase was inaugurated on March 20, 2017. The 200-megawatt (MW) first stage of the third phase became operational on May 1, 2018.