Dubai, UAE – Top officials of Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) on Wednesday discussed the UAE’s clean energy future at the former company’s Al Taweelah site in Abu Dhabi.
EGA has a strategic initiative with TAQA, Dubal Holding, and EWEC to divest its natural gas-fired power plants and instead source its electricity needs through the grid from EWEC, including an increasing proportion of clean energy. This would make EGA the largest single customer on the grid.
ENEC’s Barakah plant is already the largest source of clean, zero-carbon electricity in the UAE and the wider Arab World, with two of the four 1400 megawatt (MW) units already commercially operational, the third unit due to commence commercial operations shortly, and the fourth unit gearing up for operational readiness later this year.
Nuclear energy is an important source of baseload electricity, meaning it generates significant volume 24/7, which is fundamental to supporting the UAE’s growing intermittent renewable sources, which generate during daylight hours.
Nuclear energy-generated electricity is particularly important for decarbonising heavy industries, which need large volumes of continuous electricity to power industrial processes, like aluminium smelting.
ENEC supplies electricity to EWEC through a long-term agreement, which EWEC sells for dispatch.
“The Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant provides a significant amount of EWEC’s clean electricity and will continue to deliver the majority of its emissions-free energy for decades,” Mohamed Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Managing Director, and Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, said. “As the only source of carbon-free power that generates baseload, 24/7 electricity in the UAE, nuclear energy has a central role to play in securing the decarbonization of the UAE’s power sector.”
He added: “Key industrial players like EGA who are looking to decarbonize their operations are already benefitting greatly from the reliable and clean electricity produced at the Barakah Plant.”
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said that the UAE’s ambitious energy transition provides the largest single opportunity for decarbonisation at EGA.
“Alongside solar, nuclear power will be a major part of EGA’s energy mix over the decades ahead, enabling us to provide the low-carbon aluminium the world needs to make modern life possible,” Bin Kalban said.
EGA became the first company in the world to produce aluminium using solar power in 2021, through an agreement with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority. EGA produced last year almost 39,000 tonnes of CelestiAL (an aluminium produce being made, using solar power).
EGA’s customers for the metal include BMW Group; Hammerer Aluminium Industries, a tier 1 supplier of Mercedes-Benz; and Kobe Steel, one of the largest rolling mills in Japan that makes automotive body sheets for Nissan.