Solar Desalination Plant to Open in Dubai
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Technology
The first solar powered desalination plant in Dubai with a capacity of 50 cubic meters per day is expected to be launched later this month, a senior executive at Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has revealed.
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dewa visited the water desalination unit at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to check its progress.
The desalination plant is powered by a photovoltaic array and uses reverse osmosis technology to produce 50 cubic metres of drinking water a day. The project supports Dewa’s Research & Development efforts (R&D) to provide high-quality drinking water for the solar park. Dewa cooperates with other international organisations to conduct research on water desalination using solar energy.
"The project also supports Dewa and the UAE Water Foundation’s (Suqia)’s efforts to supply people in poor countries with clean drinking water, by conducting specialised research regarding the production of desalinated water via the use of solar energy, storing it, and supporting water technology related projects to defeat drought,” said Al Tayer.
He noted that the project adheres to the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to provide 7% of Dubai’s energy from clean energy sources by 2020.
"This supports Dewa’s vision to become a sustainable innovative world-class utility," he said.
The project aims to extract saltwater and desalinate it to produce water that is as good as bottled water, by using innovative technology.
All electricity used to pump and desalinate water at the station will be produced via a hybrid electricity source that combines photovoltaic cells at 100 kilowatts KW, and batteries with a capacity of 520kW/h per day.
35% of construction on the project is complete, the project is expecting to see completion by the end of May 2016.
The project will produce desalinated water by using solar energy and an integrated energy storage system, this allows the station to operate for 24 hours a day.
The idea is to apply this model on a larger scale to form more developed technology to produce water.
Source: Utilities - me
Read More Related Content On This Topic - Click Here
Media
Taxonomy
- Desalination
- Solar Desalination
- Operation & Maintenance
- Sustainable Desalination
- Operations