Powered by LONGi, EQ Magazine presented a webinar on ‘UAE Utility Scale Solar Market – Opportunities & Challenges’ on July 27, 2021. Speakers from different origins, the private sector and local authorities, discussed opportunities, challenges and lessons learnt from the past.
Majorly, the panel focused on Utility Scale projects in UAE, how to benefit from these installations, challenges and opportunities in terms of regulations, investment, mechanism and more from the perspective of technology, finance and trends.
The UAE has nailed its mark on the world’s renewable energy and solar energy map with its initiatives. In technology adoption, UAE is far ahead of a lot of countries, and the potential in UAE is immense. Middle East, particularly UAE was amongst the first in the region to start providing solar power.
The shift from fossil fuels in the region that is 100% based on oil and gas to the solar energy or renewables is a real challenge that needs a paradigm change in terms of the ambition. Speaker discussed how these projects could be applied, strategies and the public and private investment.
Gonzalo Bonelo Redondo presented and how to choose the best supplier for theproject. LONGi has been recognized as the world-leading technology company with the highest market value. It is the largest producer globally with more than 50 GW capacity.
NawalAlhanaee presented insights on the energy sector in UAE from transition to transmission. In 2017, UAE launched the UAE Energy strategy for 2050. It has the ambition to increase the contribution of clean energy in the total energy mix from 25% to 50% by 2050 and also reduce the carbon footprint of power generation by 70%. The long term target for UAE is a balance between fossil fuel and clean energy.
“UAE has been a winner in this space as we make and break our own records. The availability of solar resources and vast land, project ownership, and access to finance are among the largest contributors to the UAE’s highly competitive price outcomes.” She also shared a brief on the accomplishments and achievements in the energy sector in UAE.
UAE is also driving innovation in clean energy with the recently installed pilot of a floating solar power plant that is set to have a capacity of 80 KW in Abu Dhabi. Also, she informed, “Progressing in renewables has also shown as a green hydrogen pilot plant in the UAE. Dubai has announced the first solar-powered green hydrogen project which is an example of a privatepartnership between DEWA and Siemens.”
The Green Hydrogen Facility has an area of 10,000 square meters that aims to test and showcase an integrated megawatt-scale plant to procure green hydrogen using renewable energy, store the gas, then deliver it for re-electrification, transportation or other industrial uses.
CherradiNabih, Chief Technology Officer, Desert Technologies participated as moderator of the session. The panellists of the webinar included NawalAlhanaee, Acting Director of Future Energy department at Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure -UAE; Gonzalo Bonelo Redondo, Global Business Development Manager, LONGi Solar; Mohamed Nassef, Executive Business Development Manager ACWA Power; Sergio Casanova Planes, Head of Business Development Renewable Energy, Larsen & Toubro; Vinod Kumar, Senior Manager, Strategy and Transformation- Business Consulting, Ernst & Young; Kamal Tak, Director- Corporate Finance, Klay Capital.
“UAE is one of the most interesting markets especially with the challenges in terms of competitiveness. We still have a lot of important and surprising things to be developed in there,” said CherradiNabih.
