First Solar to Power 200MW PV Project in Dubai

First Solar, Inc. has signed an agreement to supply its high performance photovoltaic (PV) modules to power the 200 megawatt (MW)AC second phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier this year, a consortium led by ACWA Power, a leading water and power developer, owner and operator based in Saudi Arabia, and TSK, a Spanish engineering and construction company, was selected by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) to develop, construct, own and operate the independent power project. According to the consortium, the project’s tariff of 5.84 USD cents per kilowatt-hour establishes a new global benchmark, reducing the cost of solar electricity by more than 20%.

Significantly, the utility scale solar plant will be the largest facility of its kind in the Middle East when completed in early 2017. The plant will produce enough energy to power 30,000 average homes in the UAE and will displace over 469,650 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. The project will be powered by more than 2.36 million First Solar modules, compared to the 152,880 that were installed in the 13MWAC first phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The plant will be built over an area of almost 4.5 million square meters, sufficient to cover as many as 100 soccer pitches.

First Solar’s advanced PV modules have set the industry benchmark with more than 10GW installed worldwide.

“With this win, First Solar will have earned the position of being the leading PV solutions provider in the Middle East, with a projected installed capacity of at least 270MW across the region by 2017,” said Ahmed S. Nada, VP and region executive for the Middle East at First Solar.