Abu Dhabi has nine water desalination plants that produce 960 million gallons of water daily, accounting for 60 percent of the country’s daily production, according to statistics from the Department of Energy-Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi’s energy sector is also witnessing an expansion in terms of electricity produced from solar energy, which is expected to increase by 1.5 gigawatts in 2025.
The department has cooperated with its local partners to launch of the Abu Dhabi Demand-Side Management and Energy Rationalisation Strategy 2030, as part of its commitment to protect the rights of consumers, re-structure pricing and ensure transparency.
The strategy, which will be announced during the World Energy Conference 2019, includes several programmes that aim to promote energy-saving, energy efficiency and water rationalisation until 2030.
The department aims to achieve the objectives of the UAE Energy Strategy 2050 to increase the use of clean energy in the country’s energy mix to 50 percent, as well as decrease the carbon print by 70 percent, and decrease energy consumption by 40 percent.
Clean and renewable energy projects are prioritised by Abu Dhabi, which announced the commercial launch of Noor Abu Dhabi’s 1.17-gigawatt solar power plant costing AED3.2 billion, one of the largest independent solar plants in the world.
Abu Dhabi also launched the Shams 1 Solar Power Plant in 2006 with a production capacity of 100 megawatts, followed by the Masdar Plant with a capacity of 10 megawatts.
The UAE is currently completing the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant (Barakah NEP) costing US$20 billion, which will add around 5.6 gigawatts. Comprising of four APR1400 nuclear reactors, construction on Barakah Unit 1 began in 2012 and was completed in 2018.
Meanwhile, construction is progressing on Units 2, 3, and 4 of Barakah NEP, which has an overall completion rate of more than 93 percent.
Abu Dhabi is one of the world’s largest producers of desalinated water, accounting for up to 9 percent of total global production. It is also keen to produce drinking water and it announced the launch of the Al Taweelah Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant, which is planned to begin operating by the end of 2022, increasing Abu Dhabi’s total desalinated water production via reverse osmosis from 13 percent to 30 percent.