A 100 megawatt (MW) concentrating solar plant (CSP) under construction in Abu Dhabi is the first of its kind in the Middle East and one of the biggest in the world.
The Shams 1 facility, which covers 617 acres near Abu Dhabi, is scheduled to connect to the grid before the end of March. Because it is a parabolic trough design, it requires less land than other CSP technologies.
About 768 parabolic trough collectors with 258,000 mirrors track the sun throughout the day and concentrate its energy on tubes that carry a heat transfer fluid, heating it to 400 degrees Celsius. The fluid passes through a natural gas-powered booster, where it is heated another 140 degrees Celsius to generate steam for a conventional steam turbine.
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