The world’s largest solar park produces not only electricity but also hydrogen

The Emirate of Dubai is currently building the largest solar power plant in the world, because the country’s energy requirements are gigantic. In addition to electricity, the solar park should therefore also produce hydrogen.

The future belongs to regenerative energies. In order to minimize their dependence on fossil fuels, many countries around the world are therefore planning huge construction projects. But it is not only China that is now setting one record after the other.

For several years now, a huge solar system has been under construction in the Dubai desert with the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktum solar park. The city, 50 kilometers away, increased its energy requirements by three terawatt hours last year alone. In the future, most of the energy required will come from renewable sources.

The largest solar system in the world has 2.2 million modules

Work on the project began back in 2012. Since then, a huge solar park has been created, the fifth construction phase of which was recently completed. This alone adds 2.2 million solar modules over ten square kilometers to the previous system. The annual yield per kilowatt of installed capacity has so far been around 2.3 megawatt hours.

However, it will probably take some time before the energy requirement is completely covered by renewable sources by 2050. But with the project, Dubai is not only focusing on electricity from classic solar panels. In the fourth construction phase, which is scheduled for completion in 2024, several solar thermal power plants will be built.

Systems store enough energy for cloudy days and at night

These are based on steam driving turbines. For this to work, several solar modules are focused on a tube like mirrors. This contains molten salt and produces the steam required for the generators via a heat exchanger. The plant also produces hydrogen in a dedicated area.

Because the project planners also want to create sufficient capacity for cloudy days or the night. The solar thermal power plants store energy for up to 15 hours. If that is not enough, the hydrogen produced can be burned.

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