The end of March witnessed the grand opening ceremony of Dubai 700MW fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the biggest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project in the world. The project is supposed to provide clean power to Dubai EXPO in 2020 and fully completed by 2022.

As CSP Focus reported earlier, the consortium of ACWA Power and Shanghai Electric won the bid at the lowest price of USD 7.3 cents/kWh. The project consists of one 100MW molten salt tower plant and three 200MW thermal oil parabolic trough plants. Shanghai Electric, also as the project EPC contractor, shared their participation in the Dubai 700MW CSP plant during the past CSP Focus China 2018 event during Mar.22-23 in Beijing.

Dubai Solar Park Phase 4 CSP Plant Layout (1CT+3PT)

As Mr. Wang Deyuan, Assistant General Manager from Energy Department of Shanghai Electric Power Plant Group explains, the height of the Tower plant is designed to be 260 meters, which will be the highest CSP tower in the world. The single plant capacity of both the Tower and Parabolic plants will also be the world top. The combination of CT and PT CSP technologies could contribute to realizing the low cost.

Free report: Cost Control & Supply Chain Optimization for Dubai 700MW CSP Project by Shanghai Electric
 

Timeline of Shanghai Electric Participating DEWA CSP Plant

Looking back to the process of participating the DEWA CSP project, Shanghai Electric was able to make every step as expected.  As the above picture shows, the tendering documents were released on January 15th, 2017 and bidding open on June 5th, when the basic proposal was 2*100MW Tower CSP project, and the consortium of ACWA Power and Shanghai Electric offered the price of USD 9.45 cents/kWh. As a result, the consortium won the bid on the proposal of 700MW(1*100MW CT+3*200MW PT) on September 16th.

 
The price of USD 7.3 cents/kWh could event compete with ISCC in MENA region. How such a low price could be reached? The quite big scale could help realize size economic effect, and the financing work is progressed quite smoothly thanks to the well-preparation of the consortium and the local good financing environment.

How to control the cost? The work should be lasted throughout the whole life cycle including development, execution, operation and maintenance. The purchasing of plant equipment and materials is now started, and Shanghai Electric, as the EPC, would like to establish long-term cooperation with both China and global vendors of technology, equipment, material and consultancy through platforms like CSP Focus. 

To get the most updated progress of the Dubai 700MW CSP project and talk to the main participators, you are welcome to join the upcoming CSP Focus MENA 2018 event in Marrakech, Morocco during June 27-28, which will be the can’t missing gathering for CSP industry players watching Middle East & North Africa region. 

Relevant CSP Conference：2018 CSP Focus Conference（June 27-28 Morocco）