(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Dubai has no plans to build nuclear power plants to raise its electricity generation capacity in order to support economic growth, a top official said.
Instead, Dubai will import nuclear power generated by Abu Dhabi at its Baraka nuclear plant in the Western region, for which negotiations are under way, said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, chief executive officer and managing director of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), in an interview with Khaleej Times.
Speaking on the sidelines of the eighth edition of the World Future Energy Summit, which kicked off in the UAE capital on Monday, Al Tayer, who is also deputy chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, highlighted the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 which aims to reduce energy demand by 30 per cent, increase the share of renewable energy and diversify the energy mix to include 71 per cent from natural gas, 12 per cent from nuclear power, 12 per cent from clean coal and five per cent from solar power.
He talked about some of the key projects being managed and implemented by Dewa, including the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. Its total capacity will reach 1,000 MW when complete by 2030, with investment of approximately Dh12 billion.
He said that Dubai does not import electricity from Abu Dhabi. Dubai's neighbouring northern emirates, however, import upto 2000 megawatt of electricity a day during summer.
The Dewa CEO said that Dubai had recently issued bids for the construction of solar energy projects which would generate 100 MW. "The experience so far has been encouraging as the per-kilowatt-hour power generation price is attractive at 5.8 cents, down from 5.9 cents earlier estimated."
Dubai aspires to generate one per cent of its total electricity capacity from renewable sources by 2020. This will be multiplied five times to make up five per cent of electricity generation in 2030. "But in view of the prices we have received in the bidding, we've to review our policy in terms of hiking the share of renewable energy in electricity generation," he said.
Al Tayer said that from the initially planned capacity of 100 MW, Dubai has already doubled the supply from its solar power project. He hinted at a project with much higher capacity.
"We're going to review our solar strategy because of the attractive prices to generate electricity," he said, adding that the per-kilowatt-hour prices may reduce further in the future, which will encourage electricity generation from renewables.
He said that Dubai has an excellent transmission network. The emirate awarded 600 KV sub stations last year. "We're going to built more sub stations in the future," he said.
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