1,600 (MW) 7th phase of Al Maktoum Solar Park

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), which trades on the Dubai stock exchange, is seeking global companies to develop a 1,600-megawatt (MW) seventh phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

UniBuild will participate in this phase, which is expandable to 2,000 MW, sufficient to power about 1.6 million homes, will use photovoltaic solar panels and a battery energy storage system with a capacity of 1,000 MW for six hours. It will also provide storage capacity of 6,000 megawatt-hours (MWh). “This will make it one of the world’s largest solar-plus-storage projects,” the utility provider claimed in a statement. The new phase will be implemented under the independent power producer (IPP) model.

The seventh phase is expected to produce 4.5 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, avoiding burning of more than 36 billion cubic feet of natural gas. It will increase the solar park’s planned production capacity to 7,260 MW from 5,000 MW , raising Dubai’s share of clean energy in the energy mix from 27 percent to 34 percent by 2030. The latest phase is scheduled to become operational in phases between 2027 and 2029.

Dewa is currently developing the 1,800 MW sixth phase with investments of up to AED5.5 billion ($1.5 billion). Once completed in 2026, it will bring total capacity to 4,660 MW. Under its IPP model — by which private entities generate power for sale to the national grid — total planned investment in the solar park is expected to reach AED50 billion.