The world’s largest planned single sited solar project, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park (MBR Solar Park) is inching closer to its 5 GW overall capacity after the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) inaugurated 900 MW under phase V, 6 months ahead of schedule.

Originally targeted to come online in December 2023, this phase was switched on in June 2023, according to DEWA. This capacity will provide clean energy to around 270,000 Dubai residences.

The phase V was built by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) through Shuaa Energy 3 after they won the rights with the lowest winning bid of $0.016953/kWh in October 2019 (see DEWA’s 900 MW Tender Attracts Lowest Bid Of $0.0169/kWh).

ACWA Power has already energized 200 MW PV capacity for phase II of the park and is also working on 950 MW under phase IV through a project company called Noor Energy 1.

The developer consortium hired China’s Shanghai Electric as the EPC contractor for phase V that commissioned 300 MW in August 2021. It has equipped the project with bifacial solar panels from JinkoSolar and single axis tracker systems (see China PV News Snippets: JA Solar, Shanghai Electric).

DEWA says phase V is one of the first projects in the Middle East to use artificial intelligence (AI) as part of an advanced robotic cleaning system for the operation and maintenance of solar panels.

With this capacity online, MBR Solar Park now has 2.427 GW solar PV and concentrated solar power (CSP) capacity online out of 5 GW targeted. The total capacity of CSP projects under construction at the solar park is 433 MW.

DEWA says it has increased the share of clean energy in Dubai’s energy mix to about 16.3% of its total installed capacity, which has reached 14.917 GW.

MBR Solar Park is currently working on 1.8 GW under phase VI for which DEWA has received the lowest bid of $0.0162154/kWh from Abu Dhabi’s Masdar. ACWA Power is the other bidder for this round (see DEWA Update For 5 GW Solar Project).