Dubai to build World's Largest Concentrated Solar Power Plant

Dubai - Dubai is building big things, this includes a newly-approved concentrated solar power project that will generate 1,000 megawatts of power by 2020 and 5,000 megawatts by 2030, which aim to provide power for 800,000 homes.

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority(DEWA) has announced the second phase of a massive solar project located in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.The first phase 13-megawatt of the project has been working since October 2013 and the 2nd phase 200-megawatt is expected to be operational by April 2017.

DEWA has already received five bids from the international companies for the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park's 800-megawatt third phase, with the lowest bid at USD 2.99 cents per kilowatt, a record low price for the solar power.

Ivanpah CSP in California is currently the world's largest solar power plant which generates about 392 MW of power. Morocco's Ouarzazate solar power plant will provide about 580 MW of power once it's complete by 2020.

Dubai's #DEWA to build world's largest Concentrated Solar Power project at #MBRSolarPark: https://t.co/y9L42ykKCB pic.twitter.com/nxdBoH7Vmg

— Diana Radoane (@DianaRadoane) June 2, 2016

Concentrated solar power plants, unlike solar energy drawn from photovoltaic cells, use a large array of mirrors called heliostats to concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a small area, typically on top of a tower. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light gets converted to heat, which drives a steam turbine connected to an electrical power generator.

The Dubai plant will have several thousand heliostats located around a tower. The resulting heat-transfer fluid will power a steam turbine to generate electricity. Incredibly, the new plant will deliver power at less than 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from the typical 15 kilowatt-hour rate. Once complete, the solar park is expected to reduce 6.5 million tons of carbon emissions each year. A typical coal plant produces around  3.5 million tons of CO2 per year.

The huge project is part of Dubai Clean Energy Strategy by 2050, which aims to provide 7 percent of the emirate's total power output from clean energy sources by 2020.