The world’s largest solar thermal power plant went online yesterday—in Abu Dhabi.
The inauguration of the 100-megawatt Shams 1 power station by Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar underscores the emergence of Middle East petro-kingdoms as the new hot market for solar energy as European markets constrict and developers in the US face hurdles to building massive projects in fragile desert environments.
Masdar chief executive Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber called Shams 1 “a major breakthrough for renewable energy in the Middle East,” noting that the company now generates nearly 10 per cent of the world’s solar thermal electricity. Shams 1 will power about 20,000 homes in the emirate.
For OPEC states, renewable energy is a long-term strategy to preserve their most precious resource. The more solar electricity sun-soaked, oil-rich nations like the United Arab Emirates can produce to power their domestic economies, the more petroleum they conserve to export.
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