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wiredInUSA - April 2013
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United Arab Emirates has officially opened
the world’s largest concentrated solar
power plant, a $600 million project to
provide electricity to 20,000 homes.
Gulf News reported that president of UAE
and the ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khalifa bin
Zayed Al Nahyan inaugurated the Shams 1
solar power station in Madinat Zayed, in the
presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid
Al Maktoum, vice president and prime
minister of UAE and ruler of Dubai.
The construction of Shams 1, a joint venture
between Masdar, a company based in Abu
Dhabi and international operatives such
as Total and Abengoa, began in the third
quarter of 2010 and will produce 100MW of
electricity.
With this new solar project, Masdar will
be producing 10 percent of the world’s
renewable energy, said Sultan Al Jaber,
CEO of Masdar, adding that the UAE is
now producing 68 percent of the total
renewable energy produced by the
members of Gulf Cooperation Council, a
political and economic union of the Arab
states bordering the Persian Gulf.
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, 120 kilometers southwest
of Abu Dhabi.
ASIA / AFRICA NEWS
World’s largest
solar power plant
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