Today's Edition
MAYS IBRAHIM (ABU DHABI)
By marrying solar power generation with massive battery storage, Masdar’s recently unveiled round-the-clock renewable energy plant has overcome one of the biggest technical challenges in renewables: intermittency.
The project delivers a stable one-gigawatt supply of clean electricity around the clock — enough to power more than half a million homes.
In an interview with Aletihad, Masdar’s engineers detailed how they achieved this breakthrough by integrating advanced solar capacity with large-scale battery storage and intelligent control systems.
“The main challenge of renewable energy is that it’s not consistent. It fluctuates,” noted Abdulla Zayed, Director of Development and Investment at Masdar.
When there’s sun, you have electricity; when there isn’t, you don’t. He explained how this plant changes that.
By combining solar generation with large-scale battery storage, it flattens the output curve and ensures reliable power around the clock, said Zayed.
At full capacity, the facility integrates 5.2 gigawatts of photovoltaic power with 19 gigawatt-hours of battery storage — a scale unmatched anywhere in the world.
Dr Ibraheem Almansouri, Masdar’s Director of Engineering, noted that the system stores excess solar power at noon and dispatches it at night to maintain a constant one-gigawatt baseload supply.
Unlike traditional solar and storage projects that operate independently, Masdar’s model co-locates and couples the two systems.
Masdar’s engineers pointed out that this not only simplifies operations for the Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), the project’s offtaker, but also reduces infrastructure, management and integration costs.
A Blueprint for Replication
While the plant is connected to the national grid, its concept is designed to be scalable and adaptable, including in off-grid settings.
Zayed said Masdar plans to replicate the project across the UAE and is already developing a round-the-clock renewable energy concept in Kazakhstan.
Masdar’s team views the project not just as a domestic achievement but as a template for other nations pursuing energy security and decarbonisation.
“We’re not just celebrating a project,” Dr. Almansouri said. “We’re celebrating a blueprint for the world."
The plant integrates advanced digital systems, including AI-driven forecasting, diagnostics, digital twins, virtual power plant capabilities, grid-forming, and black-start functions.
Dr Almansouri said this allows it to optimise performance, predict power dispatch, and deliver a level of functionality unmatched by other renewable projects.
Financially, the project also breaks new ground. While the inclusion of storage increases upfront costs, the team says it still competes with conventional energy on price.
“Yes, the tariff will be higher than a plain vanilla solar,” Zayed acknowledged. “You’re utilising a good dispatch at night and that is an additional CAPEX.”
However, by combining solar and storage to provide stable electricity, Zayed noted the project still delivers a competitive price for baseload power, showing that renewable energy can rival conventional gas-fired power generators.
Powering Data Centres
Zayed said the rapid growth of industrial and technological sectors is driving demand for stable, green electricity, adding that the plant’s reliable, round-the-clock output is particularly valuable for energy-intensive sectors that cannot tolerate power interruptions, such as data centres.
In 2024, they consumed approximately 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, accounting for about 1.5% of global electricity consumption, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
This demand has been growing at an annual rate of 12% over the past five years, driven by the proliferation of cloud computing, streaming services, and, notably, AI applications.
Looking ahead, IEA projects that global data centre electricity consumption will more than double by 2030, reaching around 945 TWh — equivalent to the current total electricity consumption of Japan.
Meanwhile, the electricity demand from AI-optimised data centres is projected to grow by 30% annually and to more than quadruple by 2030.
Masdar aims to double its renewable and clean energy capacity from 50 gigawatts today to 100 gigawatts by 2030, expanding its reach in more than 40 countries.
