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A project company led by French utility developer EDF Renewables and South Korea's Korea Western Power Company (Kowepo), and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), have reached financial close on the 1,500MW Al-Ajban solar photovoltaic (PV) independent power project (IPP) in Abu Dhabi.

According to Masdar, financing for the project has been secured from the following banks and financial institutions:

• BNP Paribas (France)
• Credit Agricole (France)
• Standard Chartered Bank (UK)
• HSBC Middle East (UK)
• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC, Japan)
• Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim, South Korea)

In April, following a successful bid submission, the project company owned by EDF Renewables and Kowepo, in which each has a 20% stake as lead members, and Masdar as the local shareholder with a 60% stake, signed a 30-year power-purchase agreement with Emirates Water & Electricity Company (Ewec).

The EDF-led team submitted the lowest levelised electricity cost of 5.1921 fils a kilowatt-hour (kWh) or about 1.413 $cents/kWh for the Al-Ajban solar PV IPP contract, MEED reported in July 2023.

The project company will design, finance, build and operate the plant, which is to be located 70 kilometres northeast of Abu Dhabi. 

In July, the developer team awarded Powerchina Huadong Engineering Corporation the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project.

It is the second major contract that the French-South Korean team has won in the GCC since March last year. The team previously won the contract to develop and operate Oman's 500MW Manah 1 solar IPP.

The same EPC contractor, Powerchina Huadong Engineering Corporation, is undertaking the EPC work for the Manah 1 IPP.

Net-zero goals

The Al-Ajban project – similar to the 1,584MW Al-Dhafra solar IPP, which was inaugurated in November, and the operational 935MW Noor Abu Dhabi plant – supports the UAE Energy Strategy 2050 and the UAE Net-Zero by 2050 strategic initiative.

Ewec aims to install up to 17GW of solar PV capacity by 2035.

The plan will require the procurement of about 1.5GW of capacity annually over the next 10 years. In the intervening period, ending in 2030, Ewec plans to have an additional 5GW of solar capacity, reaching a total solar installed capacity of 7.3GW by 2030.

Ewec expects its first battery energy storage system to come online in the late 2020s to better balance the grid's load as more renewable energy enters the system.

The UAE published its updated national energy strategy in July 2023. It includes a plan to triple the nationwide renewable energy capacity to 19GW by 2030.