24 Jan 2022 | 01:22 UTC

Dubai's energy demand climbs 9.8% as renewables gain bigger share

Highlights

Clean energy share up to 11.38%

DEWA working with ACWA Power on solar park

Emirate consumes about 1.5 Bcf/d of gas, largely from Qatar

Dubai Electricity & Water Authority said Jan. 24 that the UAE emirate's energy demand climbed 9.8% on the year in 2021 as renewables are making up a bigger share of the energy mix.

Demand rose to 50,202 GWh last year from 45,712 GWh in 2020, DEWA said in a statement. DEWA's production capacity was 13.417 GW of electricity and 490 million imperial gallons of desalinated water per day, it said.

Dubai is meeting the growing electricity demand from renewables and more power stations. DEWA added 16 substations at its giant Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum Solar Park and another district in 2021, it said Jan. 23. It also installed 222 km of 400 kV overhead transmission lines and 97 km of 132 kV ground cables to connect the substations to the main transmission network, boosting the utility's investments in existing and completed electricity projects to dirham 9.5 billion ($2.59 billion) for 2021.

The 900 MW fifth phase of the solar park is 60% complete, and renewables now account for 11.38% of Dubai's energy mix, DEWA said Jan. 16. The share will reach 13.3% in Q1 2022. It was 9% in 2020.

Dubai wants to have 100% of its power capacity from clean energy sources by 2050. Natural gas is the predominant power source currently.

By 2030, Dubai aims to have an energy mix of 25% solar, 7% nuclear power, 7% from "clean coal" and 61% from natural gas.

The emirate currently consumes about 1.5 Bcf/d of natural gas, much of which is imported from Qatar.

The solar park has planned capacity of 5 GW by 2030. DEWA has previously said it has received about dirham 40 billion of investments in the solar project which has achieved world record low electricity costs for five times.

In November 2019, DEWA selected a consortium led by Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corp. to build and operate the fifth phase of the solar park. DEWA established Shuaa Energy 3 to run the project, with DEWA owning 60% and ACWA and Gulf Investment holding the rest. The fifth phase received a record low bid at the time of 1.6953 US cents/kWh for the electricity cost from solar.