Abu Dhabi government-owned MasdarMasdar, the renewable energy company, is planning to build a 100 megawatt photovoltaic, or PV, power plant, taking advantage of lower PV costs compared to concentrated solar power, a company executive said Sunday.
“Our power unit, which is working on renewable projects, is working on a PV plant, Noor 1,” Afshin Afshari, manager of energy management at Masdar City, told reporters.
“Originally, we had planned on using only CSP [concentrated solar power], but the cost of PV had come down significantly and continues to come down,” Afshari said. “It will be even cheaper next year.”
MasdarMasdar is already building a $600 million, 100 megawatt CSP plant in Abu Dhabi with France’s TotalTotal S.A. (TOT) and Spain’s Abengoa Solar (ABG.MC). MasdarMasdar, which owns 60% of the project, appointed the partners in June last year. TotalTotal and Abengoa each own 20%.
MasdarMasdar last year reviewed its plans for Masdar City, the real-estate part of its initiative, and revised its delivery timeline for the carbon-neutral development, as a global financial crisis tempered Abu Dhabi’s plans. Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate in the U.A.E. and home to most of the country’s crude oil, has set a target to generate 7% of its power from renewable sources by 2020.
MasdarMasdar has said the review allowed it to cut its original budget of $22 billion by 10-15% without changing its targets.
“There’s more focus now over financial viability and making sure the technological choices we make are optimal from both the energy and financial points of view,” Afshari said Sunday. “We’re now more focused on making our buildings more efficient rather than putting PVs everywhere.”
MasdarMasdar is increasing efficiency measures, such as insulation in walls, before resorting to expensive renewable energy, he said.
Planned to be the world’s first city powered entirely by renewable energy sources, Masdar City will need to seek off-site sources of power as more of the city is built, Afshari added. MasdarMasdar Institute, the project’s research and educational arm, and the complex site are now powered by a 10 megawatt PV power plant that is also connected to Abu Dhabi’s electricity grid.
“As new buildings come online in a year or two, we will probably need to seek alternative sources of power,” he said.
The development is now “energy positive,” or generating more power over 24 hours than is used, he added. MasdarMasdar Institute and the site are powered by 10 megawatt from the power plant and 1 megawatt from solar panels on the Institute’s roof. PV panels on the roof of MasdarMasdar’s headquarters, expected to be complete in three years, will add an additional three megawatt.
“Beyond that, we are using non-power renewable energy,” Afshari said.
MasdarMasdar is building a pilot project to test geothermal energy, drilling two 2.5 kilometers-deep holes into the ground to convert warm ground water into chilled water that can be used for district cooling.
