Page 19 - RSB Annual Report 2019 English Final

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park saw an addition of 300MW of solar PV to its production capacity in 2019 when Shuaa Energy 2 commissioned its second phase, bringing the plant’s operational capacity up to 500MW and the park’s to 715MW. Shuaa Energy 2 continued work on its third and last phase of 300MW and Noor Energy 1 installed the world’s highest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) tower on site as part of its 950MW CSP+PV plant. There were no additions to independent power producer (IPP) licences in 2019, but one amendment to Shuaa Energy 2’s licence to reflect a change of one of the plant’s operation and maintenance subcontractors. DEWA is implementing the 900MW 5th phase of the Solar Park using solar PV. DEWA achieved a world record bid of US1.70¢/KWh for this phase through a partnership with a consortium led by ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corporation. The plant is planned to become operational in stages starting in the second quarter of 2021. The levelised cost of electricity generated from solar PV has dropped significantly worldwide over the past few years, and this has been especially evident in Dubai where several world records were recorded through bids for PV plant. Figure 1 illustrates this drop from US5.85¢/KWh in January 2015 to US1.70¢/KWh in November 2019. As for smaller scale projects, three new licences were granted to captive plant supplying two factories and a dairy farm. Al Khaleej Sugar, one of the world’s largest sugar producers, received a generation licence in April for a 20MW gas-fired combined cycle power plant. In October the RSB granted a generation licence to National Cement Company for its 6MW waste heat recovery plant. National Cement uses coal and bio-waste to generate steam for its cement production process and can boost its operational efficiency by recovering waste heat and thus raise steam to meet some of its electricity needs, reducing its carbon footprint. A month later, the year’s third licence was granted to Al Rawabi Dairy Company to produce 1.3MW from a biogas combined heat and power plant. Al Rawabi’s solution will help mitigate issues related to waste from 13,000 cattle at its farm in Al Khawaneej while helping the dairy producer meet some of its electricity demand. Annual Report 2019 7 6 5 43 2 1 0 5.58 200MW 2.99 800MW 2.40 250MW 1.70 900MW Figure 1 RSB 19 Jan 15 Mar 15 May 15 Jul 15 Sep 15 Nov 15 Jan 16 Mar 16 May 16 Jul 16 Sep 16 Nov 16 Jan 17 Mar 17 May 17 Jul 17 Sep 17 Nov 17 Jan 18 Mar 18 May 18 Jul 18 Sep 18 Nov 18 Jan 19 Mar 19 May 19 Jul 19 Sep 19 Nov 19 US Cents per kwh