World's Largest Solar Power Plant to be Completed by Year End

The largest concentrated solar power project in the world is set to be completed by the end of the year, and begin operation at the start of 2013.

Construction began on the 100MW Shams 1 project back in 2010, and upon completion it will provide electricity to 20,000 local homes. Shams 2 & 3 will follow shortly after.

Technically there are larger solar power projects around the world, however they are made up of several solar power plants of less than 100MW. Eg. The Solnova Solar Power Station in Spain consists of five, 50MW plants, to give an overall project size of 250MW.

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Yousif Al Ali, the general manager of the Shams Power Company, said that, “Shams 1 is the largest concentrated solar power project in the world. Developing a project of this scale is a significant achievement for Abu Dhabi, Masdar and its partners, Total and Abengoa.”

“Once completed, Shams 1 will be one of the largest concentrated solar power [CSP] plants in the world, extending over an area of 2.5 square kilometres with a capacity of approximately 100 MW.”

Al Ali also went on to state that Shams 1 will be one of the flagship projects which leads Abu Dhabi towards its target of generating 7 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020.

By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com