Abu Dhabi’s $600M Solar Power Plant

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Abu Dhabi’s $600m solar power plant, The Shams 1 is spread over 2.5 kilometers and is expected to generate 100 MW of power annually. The project is the first utility scale, commercial solar power project for Abu Dhabi and the enclosing region. The outcome of a joint venture between Masdar, Total and Abengoa, the strong technical union has been developed under a 25 year build contract of owning and operating it collectively.

The on site location of the solar power plant will consist 768 parabolic trough collectors and they are collectively expected to achieve 7 percent of Abu Dhabi’s target production of renewable energy capacity by 2020. Along with the collectors, there are 285,048 parabolic trough mirrors, 192 solar collector assembly loops and 8 solar collector assemblies for every loop. Also not to forget there will be 27,648 absorber pipes.

A new technology has been developed to make the operations more efficient and suitable with the local conditions. CSP has been used to generate solar thermal electricity. Sunlight will be focused on the trough mirror, which heats the coolant and generates high pressure steam. This steam is used for driving a conventional turbine, therefore helping produce clean energy.

Sham 1 will be 10 times more in size when compared to the size of an already present photo voltaic array at Masdar. This means that the station will supplement the current power supply and also make provisions for the future.

Via: Gulfnews