Abu Dhabi’s Department of Energy revealed the solar push at the COP26 in Glasgow.
The new projects will follow the 2GW Al Dhafra solar PV which was put to financial close by a team of EDF and Jinko Power on 17 December 2020.
The sponsors achieved a world record for solar PV at the time of PPA signing on 27 July 2020, although this has since been superseded several times. Al Dhafra was backed by a $1 billion hard mini-perm with pre-pandemic debt pricing of 80bps over Libor.
Abu Dhabi’s next solar ventures may follow the model set by Al Dhafra. EWEC had placed a rigid structure over its development and project financing, such as the requirement of a hard mini-perm. These constraints evidently did not prevent the successful closing of the project.
The DoE chairman, Awaidha Al Marar, said: “With more upcoming renewable deployments like Abu Dhabi’s 2GW Al Dhafra Solar PV project due by 2023, as well as the baseload nuclear energy expected upon full operation of the Barakah [nuclear power] plant, the total clean power generation capacity in the emirate will reach 8.8GW in 2025, increasing the share of clean energy capacity in the energy mix to 31% by 2025 from 13% in 2021.”
The 2023 completion date for Al Dhafra is an extension on the previous expectation of Q2 2022.
