HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, received in the presence of HE Mohd Hasril Abdul Hamid, Consul General of Malaysia, a high-level delegation from the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Centre (MGTC) led by its CEO Shamsul Bahar Mohd Nor.
The meeting discussed bilateral cooperation between DEWA and the MGTC, under the umbrella of the Malaysian Ministry of Water and Environment. “We have a clear strategy and specific targets to increase the share of clean and renewable energy in Dubai’s energy mix. One of its key projects to achieve this is the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model, with a planned capacity of 5,000 megawatts (MW) by 2030,” said Al Tayer.
Al Tayer highlighted DEWA’s contributions to the UAE’s efforts of fighting climate change and global warming, particularly the Green Hydrogen project. Commissioned at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, this pilot project, which is the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa, is a promising and eco-friendly energy source. Green hydrogen is produced by water electrolysis using renewable energy. It represents one of the pillars of a sustainable future that depends on accelerating the transition to carbon neutrality to support a green economy by developing the green mobility sector and reducing carbon emissions from industries.
Furthermore, the Solar Park’s projects constitute one of the key pillars of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and aim to provide 75% of Dubai’s total power capacity from clean energy sources by 2050. By the end of 2021, clean energy capacity will increase to 13.3% of Dubai’s total energy mix.
CEO Shamsul Bahar Mohd Nor introduced the MGTC’s area of work as the implementing agency for Malaysia’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai and expressed his interest in DEWA’s pioneering projects in clean and renewable energy.
“The aspirations of the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Centre (MGTC) and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) to drive the responsibility to conserve natural resources and protect global ecosystems are completely aligned. We believe that the collaboration between MGTC and DEWA will strengthen and promote our objectives and goals in delivering solutions in combating climate change, as well as support and enhance both organizations towards planetary health and green growth. Our participation at Expo 2020 Dubai is indeed connecting minds and creating the future. Moving forward, MGTC is looking towards enhancing technological exchanges and capacity-building in the area of sustainable innovations with DEWA,” said Shamsul.
“As a globally leading sustainable innovative corporation, DEWA has made unprecedented achievements locally and globally. For example, the UAE, represented by DEWA, has maintained its first global ranking for the third year in a row, with scores of 100% in all Getting Electricity indicators in the World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report. DEWA has reduced its customer minutes lost to 1.66 minutes, compared with 15 minutes recorded by leading utilities in the European Union and the USA. DEWA has further reduced its power transmission and distribution network losses to 3.3%, compared to 6-7% in Europe and the USA. DEWA’s water network losses have decreased to 5.1%, compared to 15% in North America, making it one of the lowest in the world. DEWA improved the sustainability of its water and power infrastructure, to increase fuel consumption efficiency up to 90%, and generation efficiency by 33.41% between 2006 and 2020,” added Al Tayer.
More so, DEWA has successfully connected 6,800 solar systems in buildings in Dubai with its electricity grid — with a total capacity of 338MW — to support the sustainable development of Dubai and adopted the Reverse Osmosis technology for the desalination of seawater as part of its efforts to depend fully on clean energy for water desalination by 2030.
Al Tayer noted that DEWA adopts innovation, the latest disruptive technologies, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution applications to enhance its resilience and capacity in achieving sustainable development and reducing the carbon footprint.
