Dubai Installs World’s Tallest Solar Power Tower

World’s Tallest Solar Power Tower (Asharq Al-Awsat Ar)
World’s Tallest Solar Power Tower (Asharq Al-Awsat Ar)
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Dubai Installs World’s Tallest Solar Power Tower

World’s Tallest Solar Power Tower (Asharq Al-Awsat Ar)
World’s Tallest Solar Power Tower (Asharq Al-Awsat Ar)

Dubai saw the lifting and installation of the Molten Salt Receiver, MSR, on top of the world’s tallest solar power tower at 262.44 meters, at the largest Concentrated Solar Power project in the world.

This is part of the 4th phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The 950MW 4th phase is based on the Independent Power Producer, IPP, model with investments totalling AED 15.78 billion.

The announcement came earlier this week in the presence of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, accompanied by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, DEWA.

Tayer said the tower stands at 262.44 meters tall, assuring plans to increase it and to continue to build clean and renewable energy projects, stressing commitment to achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050’s objectives to provide 75 percent of Dubai’s total power output from clean energy by 2050.

He also hailed the smoothness and continuity of construction work over the past period to complete this strategic project, despite the coronavirus pandemic, noting that it has taken one and a half years to complete 60 percent of the CSP tower.

We have completed the lifting of the Molten Salt Receiver in record time, maintaining the highest standards of safety despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and many other challenges. This is yet another demonstration of ACWA Power’s commitment in the solar industry and the endeavours made in the region to achieve a clean energy future," said Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power.

The MSR is the center and the most important part of the CSP plant. It receives solar radiation and turns it into thermal energy. Up to 50 percent of the overall project’s first phase has been completed. This includes the solar power tower, the parabolic basin complex, and the photovoltaic solar panels.

The fourth phase of the solar park combines CSP and photovoltaic technology and is rated for 950MW. It will use 700MW of CSP, 600MW from a parabolic basin complex, 100MW from the solar power tower and 250MW from photovoltaic solar panels. On its completion, the project will have the largest thermal storage capacity in the world of 15 hours, allowing for energy availability around the clock.

This phase will provide clean energy for 320,000 residences and will reduce 1.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year.



Trump to Take Virtual Center Stage in Davos

Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
TT

Trump to Take Virtual Center Stage in Davos

Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

Donald Trump on Thursday will star in an eagerly-anticipated online appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, addressing global elites whose annual gabfest has been consumed by the US president's days-old second term.
Trump's name has come up in almost every conversation in the Swiss Alpine village this week: in formal panel discussions, in shuttles ferrying people up and down the mountain, and in exclusive parties along the promenade.
"Trump is a provocateur. He enjoys being a provocateur, and many people at Davos are bored in their life. He's not boring. So, you know, it's kind of exciting," Harvard scholar and WEF regular Graham Allison told AFP.
Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Trump, himself a businessman who made his fortune in real estate.
He already gave Davos a taste of what is to come since his inauguration on Monday, which coincided with the WEF's first day: tariff threats against Mexico and Canada, the US withdrawal from the Paris climate pact, a threat to take the Panama Canal, just to name a few.
His plans to cut taxes, reduce the size of the federal government and deregulate industries will find a sympathetic ear amongst many businesses.
"Trump has been running America like America Inc. He's been very focused on getting the best advantage for the US in any way that he can," Julie Teigland, a managing partner at EY consulting firm, told AFP.
"He knows that he needs trade partners to do that. He does. And so I expect him to give messages along these lines," she said.
'No winners'
His trade partners had a chance to react in Davos earlier this week.
Without invoking Trump's name, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang warned that "there are no winners in a trade war".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to defend free trade but he took a conciliatory tone, saying that he had good earlier discussions with Trump.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said that Brussels was ready to negotiate with Trump, but she also underscored the bloc's diverging policy with him on climate, saying it would stick by the Paris accord.
Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino dismissed Trump's claims to the Panama Canal, which was built by the United States but handed to the Central American country in 1999 under two-decade old treaties.
Mulino said he was "not worried" and that Panama would not be "distracted by this type of statement".
'Celebrate Trump'
The Republican president also has fans in Davos.
One of his biggest cheerleaders on the world stage, Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei, will make a speech to the WEF on Thursday, hours before Trump.
"The world should celebrate the arrival of President Trump," Milei said at a Bloomberg event on Wednesday.
"The golden era he proposes for the United States will shine a light for the whole world as it will spell the end of the woke ideology, which is doing so much harm to the planet," Milei said.
One of his backers in the business world, Marc Benioff, the chief executive of US tech firm Salesfoce, was also enthusiastic at the same Bloomberg chat.
"I'm very positive," he said. "I'm just looking forward to seeing what's going to happen. And it's a new day and, it's an exciting moment."