The UAE has opened the “first” renewable energy facility in the world, offering large-scale, continuous clean power. “Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s clean energy company, will combine 5GW of solar power with 19GWh of battery storage to produce 1GW of continuous power,” said UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Dr. Sultan Al Jaber.
This $6 billion project will be operational by 2027 and cover 90 square kilometres in Abu Dhabi in collaboration with the Emirates Water and Electricity Company. It is a transformational program that makes renewable energy a dependable baseload supply, according to Dr. Al Jaber. Abdulaziz Alobaidli, COO of Masdar, described it as the company’s most ambitious project yet.
In order to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C threshold, the project supports worldwide targets to double energy efficiency and quadruple renewable energy capacity by 2030. With renewable capacity needing to increase from 3.9 TW to 11.2 TW by 2030, there are still large gaps in worldwide targets despite record spending of $570 billion on renewables in 2023.
Under its Energy Strategy 2050, the UAE has doubled its renewable capacity in just two years and aims to invest $40–54 billion by 2030.
