Dhe beacon of the new age shines from afar, in the middle of the desert. Anyone approaching the Muhammad bin Raschid Al Maktum energy park south of Dubai city will be guided by the world’s tallest solar tower: a dazzling glare at 260 meters with temperatures of up to 500 degrees, generated by hundreds of mirrors reflecting the sunlight throw the spire. In this solar thermal power plant, liquid salts absorb heat, drive turbines and generate electricity. Unlike purely electrical photovoltaics, the molten salt can store the energy thermally for 15 hours, so that the electricity is also generated at night.
“In order to use solar power properly, you need capital, sun and space, and we have all of that,” says Ali Rashid Alaleeli, Vice President for Research and Development at the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority DEWA, who, together with the government, invited visitors to the park has. “The problem lies in storage, as everywhere else. We are trying to do this with thermal processes and with hydrogen.” Doctor Ali, as he calls himself, points through the panoramic windows in the air-conditioned DEWA Innovation Center to the endless surfaces of panels and mirrors outside in the glowing sand: “We’re making really good progress.”
Recently, the operators have been using solar cells on both sides, which also process the light reflected from the bright floor. However, the sand also has its pitfalls, it dusts the surfaces, reduces the yield and has to be washed off regularly. The heat reduces efficiency, and the most powerful cells convert around 20 percent of the sun’s power into electricity. Most of the modules come from China, “good technology at a good price in sufficient quantities,” says Ali Rashid Alaleeli.
More than 20 tons of CO2-emission per capita
The United Arab Emirates, to which Dubai belongs, are primarily known for their fossil fuels. The group of countries with barely 10 million inhabitants is the seventh largest oil producer in the world and ranks 15th for natural gas. Proven reserves are larger in only six other countries, and oil and gas exports account for a third of economic output. The CO2-Emissions per capita are among the five highest on the planet at more than 20 tons per year; in Germany it is 8 tons. But the Gulf State also wants to play a leading role in the generation of green electricity, including the largest contiguous solar park operated by an off-grid power generator here in Seih Al-Dahal.
The Ruler of Dubai, the Prime Minister and Vice President of the Emirates, Muhammad bin Raschid Al Maktum, has just opened the fifth expansion phase in the facility named after him. The additional power is 900 megawatts, which is said to supply 270,000 households and save almost 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. That’s just a drop in the bucket, as the Emirates’ footprint is more than 200 million tonnes domestically – double what it was 20 years ago – and much larger outside its borders.
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