Major companies in the UAE announced Wednesday to work for further development of solar power generation capacity in Abu Dhabi, progress power asset and generation optimization.
This also includes decarbonizing aluminum production in the country.
The companies are Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA), Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), Dubai Holding and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC).
The initiative is subject to further negotiation and regulatory approvals in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
If approved, it would advance TAQA and Dubai Holding’s growth strategies, and make EGA a leader in the global aluminum industry’s drive towards net-zero by 2050.
It includes supporting EWEC’s continued development of strategic renewable energy initiatives to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy sector.
TAQA and Dubai Holding envisage acquiring EGA’s electricity generation assets in the UAE, holding a 50 percent share each.
The power generated from the assets would be supplied to the grid under a long-term power purchase agreement with the dispatch of the assets through EWEC’s load dispatch center.
The assets, located in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, total 6,474 megawatts of power generation capacity, predominantly combined cycle gas turbines technology.
TAQA’s operating company, Abu Dhabi Transmission and Despatch Company (TRANSCO), would connect the power assets to the grid and invest in developing the interconnections.
This will upgrade the network to include new substations and strengthen connectivity in the UAE.
For TAQA, the acquisition of EGA’s power assets would increase the company’s UAE-based capacity to more than 23 gigawatts.
It is in line with TAQA’s growth strategy to improve domestic capacity to 30 gigawatts by 2030.
As a 50 percent shareholder of EGA, Dubai Holding supports EGA’s sustainability initiatives and has its own goal of having a strong and diversified power and energy portfolio.
EGA would source power from the grid through a long-term electricity supply agreement, including an increasing proportion of clean energy procured by EWEC.
This would make EGA the largest single electricity consumer on the grid.
The new steady power demand from EGA increases the predictability of the overall power system and advances EWEC’s development of new solar energy projects.
The scale of the expansion as a direct result of this initiative is expected to be greater than the current total installed solar generation capacity in the UAE.