Masdar and EWEC inaugurate world’s largest solar plus battery storage plant

The plant can deliver 1 GW of baseload renewable energy.

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC – Masdar and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) have broken ground for the 5.2 gigawatt (GW) solar photovoltaic plant with a 19 gigawatt-hour battery energy storage system (BESS) in Abu Dhabi.

In a statement, Masdar said the $5.94b (AED 22b) project is “the largest and most technologically advanced system of its kind in the world.” It is capable of delivering 1 GW of baseload renewable energy around the clock at a globally competitive tariff.

The project is expected to avoid approximately 5.7 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually when the facility becomes operational by 2027.

“This world-first project, the largest and most ambitious in Masdar’s history, is a blueprint for the world, demonstrating that renewable energy can be dispatched around the clock. By overcoming the challenge of intermittency, we can provide sustainable power to meet fast-growing demand from advancements in artificial intelligence and other technologies,” said Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar

Masdar has established a strong presence in battery storage, including the world’s first storage system connected to a floating offshore wind farm. The company eyes an overall project portfolio capacity across clean energy technologies of 100 GW by 2030.

AED1 = $0.27