Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) PJSC has announced a series of initiatives to help Dubai achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, including the world’s largest solar park.
In an interview with World Finance, H.E Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of DEWA, outlined the government-run organization’s clear target for the energy sector to provide 100 percent of the energy production capacity from clean energy sources by 2050.
To achieve this goal, DEWA has stopped launching projects that rely on fossil fuels, with the intention for all desalination capacity in the future to be based on renewable energy.
One of their biggest projects to help them achieve this goal is the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which is the largest single site solar park in the world. Its current production power is 2,027 MW, about 14 percent of DEWA’s total power production capacity. By 2030 it will have a production capacity of 5,000 MW, using photovoltaic solar panels and concentrated solar power technologies.
DEWA is also working on a 250 MW pump storage hydro-electric power plant that would be the first of its kind in the (Gulf Cooperation Council) GCC region, using water stored in the Hatta dam.
Other initiatives include retrofitting buildings across the city to make them more energy efficient and installing electric vehicle charging stations across Dubai.
Al Tayer said that the efforts were paying off, with Dubai seeing a 21 percent reduction in carbon emissions by the end of 2021, exceeding its target of 16 percent. The government has set a new target for 2030, aiming to cut emissions by 30 percent.
“Sustainability is an essential part of our vision and strategy,” he said. “DEWA is the first government organization to adopt the 17 UN sustainable development goals and its strategic plan to achieve long term sustainable growth through economic, social and environmental aspects.”
DEWA’s efforts saw the company receive the World Finance award for Best ESG Strategy in the UAE for 2022.
