When one of the oil-rich kingdoms of the Mideast goes solar, it’s news.
The Abu Dhabi Airport is going solar. It’s just completed the installation of more than 7,500 solar panels to power a parking lot and garage. It’s the largest such project in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, a group of sheikdoms which also includes Dubai.
The solar installation is expected to save more than 5,300 tons of carbon dioxide a year. It’s just one more eco-friendly initiative at the airport, which includes such energy-saving enhancements as use of double glazing, efficient lighting, and environmental controls, the airport has achieved considerable reductions across the building’s wider energy use.
The project is part of the UAE’s UAE’s Energy Strategy 2050 and its climate change mitigation goals, as well as demonstrating Masdar’s strength as a preferred partner in renewable energy project collaborations.
The three-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) project is installed on the car shading at the short-term car park of the Midfield Terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The Al Dhafra solar project is a 2GW photovoltaic (PV) independent power producer (IPP), planned to go online in 2022 with enough power to provide electricity to more than one million homes in the UAE, along with saving more than 2 million tons of carbon monoxide a year.
According to the trade publication Power Technology, the reduction in emissions will be equivalent to taking approximately 470,000 cars off the road.The solar power project is in line with the UAE Energy Strategy 2050, which aims to increase the share of renewable energy in the total energy mix from 25% to 50% by 2050.
Al Dhafra solar project is a 2GW photovoltaic (PV) independent power producer (IPP) project, which will be located in Al Dhafra region, approximately 35km south of Abu Dhabi City in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The project is being developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) that is 60%-owned by Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) and Masdar, the two Abu Dhabi-based government-owned electricity companies. The remaining 40% share is owned by EDF Renewables, a French electricity company, and Chinese company Jinko Power.
Masdar also is building the solar installation at the airport.
Think about it – when an oil-rich Mideast shiekdom invests billions into solar power, why are the rest of us dragging our feet?
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