Oil-rich Abu Dhabi yesterday officially opened the world’s largest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant, which cost $600 million to build and will provide electricity to 20,000 homes. The 100-megawatt Shams 1 is “the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant in operation”, said Sultan Al-Jaber, the head of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, which oversees the emirate’s plan to generate seven percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020. “Today, Shams 1 is the largest CSP plant in all terms,” said Santiago Seage, chief executive officer of Abengoa Solar, one of the partners in the project.
CSP uses a system of mirrors or lenses, whereas many other solar plants around the world use photovoltaic technology to harness solar power. Masdar now produces 10 percent of the world’s concentrated solar power, Seage said during the official inauguration. The company’s energy portfolio represents 68 percent of renewable energy produced in the Gulf region, where clean energy remains at an infancy stage. The solar park features long lines of parabolic mirrors spread over an area equivalent to 285 football pitches in the desert of the Western Region, some 120 km southwest of Abu Dhabi.
Read more: http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2013/03/17/uae-opens-largest-solar-power-plant/
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