Daijiworld Media Network (SR)

Abu Dhabi, Jun 30: 'Noor Abu Dhabi' the world's largest single solar project began its commercial operation on Saturday. Emirates Water and Electricity Company, EWEC, has announced that the project with a capacity of 1,177MW, is located at Sweihan in Abu Dhabi. 

The Dh3.2 billion solar plant is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Government, China's inko Solar Holding and a consortium of Japan's Marubeni Corp. The plant will have more than 3.2 million solar panels installed across an 8 square km area providing enough capacity to cover the demand of 90,000 people. To achieve this milestone on time, over 2,900 people were working on the project site at its peak.

The solar project will enable the Emirate to increase its production of renewable energy and reduce the use of natural gas in electricity generation. It will also help to make energy more sustainable and efficient and reduce Abu dhabi's carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million metric tonnes per year which is the equivalent of removing 200,000 cars off the road. 

As per Gulf news report, Chairman of EWEC, Mohammad Hassan Al Suwaidi told the publication that “The completion of the project marks a significant milestone in the UAE’s Energy Strategy 2050, which was launched in 2017, to increase the contribution of clean energy in the total energy mix to 50% by 2050 while reducing the carbon footprint of power generation by 70%. "This is in line with the sector’s transformation strategy by providing alternative sources of energy that can help us improve the sustainability of the water and electricity sector” he added.