Abu Dhabi and the World's Largest Solar Plant

Abu Dhabi has officially opened the world's largest concentrated Solar power plant. The Middle East is known for their vast amounts of oil, and of course Abu Dhabi the most oil-rich of the UAE. The millions of dollars comes from that oil. The 100-megawatt Shams 1 plant cost an estimated $750 million. Size wise, the plant is equivalent of 285 football pitches. It will generates power for 20,000 homes.

Being a clean source of energy, Shams 1 annually cuts 175,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (world’s biggest air pollutant and the major cause of climate change), which is equivalent of taking 30,000 cars off the road.

The plant’s latest technology also helps save 200 million gallons of water every year due to the use of an air-cooled condenser.Shams 1 - which means 'the sun' in Arabic - uses advanced parabolic trough technology to harness the light from over 250,000 mirrors. Shams 1 is a major milestone in the country’s economic diversification and a step towards long-term energy security, said the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, after inaugurating the UAE’s first solar plant.

Sultan Ahmed al Jaber, head of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., speaking at a news conference for the plant's opening over the weekend, said it is part of a "strategic plan to diversify energy sources in Abu Dhabi."

"Together, with clean energy and nuclear energy, it will make up 7 percent of Abu Dhabi's energy sources from renewable energy resources" he said.