The United Arab Emirates is within the highlight this week as some 70,000 premiers, potentates, and poseurs descend on Dubai to attend the COP 28 local weather convention, from which a lot is hoped however little is anticipated. Not distant, 35 kilometers exterior of Abu Dhabi Metropolis, the Al Dhafra Photo voltaic Facility was switched on simply days earlier than the local weather summit is scheduled to start.
The timing shouldn’t be a coincidence. It’s meant to ship a sign to the world that whereas the UAE stays one of many largest producers of oil and methane fuel on the earth, it acknowledges that change can and should happen. The UAE is traditionally sizzling. Burning the fuels it produces makes it even hotter. The Al Dhafra photo voltaic set up is anticipated to scale back atmospheric carbon emissions by 2.4 million tons annually.
It’s no coincidence that Sultan Al Jaber is each the chief of the COP 28 local weather talks and head of ADNOC, the official oil and fuel manufacturing firm for Abu Dhabi. On the ceremony to fee the 4 million photo voltaic panel, 2 GW Al Dhafra photo voltaic farm — the most important single level photo voltaic set up on the earth at 20 sq. kilometers — Al Jaber stated, “Al Dhafra is a part of a protracted and proud historical past of power innovation, made attainable due to the imaginative and prescient of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE.
“This world main photo voltaic mission demonstrates outstanding progress in solar energy effectivity, innovation and price competitiveness — setting a brand new document low tariff. To create Al Dhafra, Masdar introduced collectively three companions from around the globe: TAQA, EDF of France, and JinkoPower of China. With simply days to go earlier than the beginning of COP 28, I will likely be asking the world to unite and ship the power transition by tripling renewables capability and doubling power effectivity by 2030. Al Dhafra is an instance of the dimensions of the ambition wanted around the globe.”
In lower than fifteen years, the UAE has grow to be a worldwide chief in photo voltaic power. In 2009, Masdar switched on the nation’s first photo voltaic mission at 10MW. The Al Dhafra photo voltaic set up is 200 instances that measurement. Because the countdown to COP28 within the UAE begins, this mega mission initially achieved the world’s lowest tariff at monetary shut, and demonstrates the nation’s longstanding dedication to decarbonization at house and around the globe.
The UAE can also be a world chief in photo voltaic power use in response to the most recent information from The Vitality Institute Statistical Evaluation of World Vitality. It ranks second globally when it comes to per capita photo voltaic power consumption. In beneath a decade, the nation has surpassed main nations by putting in photo voltaic power as a part of the nation’s power diversification.
Six Flags Photo voltaic Cover In California
On a a lot smaller scale, Six Flags Magic Mountain close to Los Angeles introduced this week a 12.37 MW photo voltaic cover mission that may cowl the roofs of all of the coated parking areas on the amusement park is sort of full. That is welcome information as a result of everybody desires extra photo voltaic however not if they’ve to take a look at it. Placing panels on parking constructions is among the least controversial methods so as to add solar energy there may be.
The mission will rank as the most important single website industrial renewable power mission in California and largest photo voltaic mission allotted towards a for-profit group in america, distinguishing Six Flags as a pacesetter within the business.
“Right here in California, innovation and local weather motion go hand-in-hand – our success as America’s financial powerhouse and the world’s fourth largest economic system is constructed on our formidable transition to a cleaner, greener future. Six Flags’ dedication to scrub power is the kind of work that may energy our future and guarantee our youngsters have a wholesome planet to name house,” stated California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“This can be a thrilling day for Six Flags as we advance our dedication to environmental stewardship, considerably growing solar energy technology capability at our parks,” stated Jason Freeman, Six Flags vice chairman of operations. “Six Flags has positioned a excessive precedence on efforts to enhance and defend the surroundings, main the way in which for theme park firms around the globe and capturing the eye of different non-public organizations that even have the facility to drive photo voltaic initiatives. By partnering with consultants like Photo voltaic Optimum and DSD Renewables, we will proceed to enhance our environmental applications with further waste, water and power discount targets and initiatives,” he added.
The set up features a battery storage system able to producing 1.958 MW of energy with 7,886.3 kWh of capability that may be deployed each day to fulfill all {the electrical} wants of the Six Flags facility. Annual capability is 20.8 million kWh — equal to the electrical energy consumption of two,874 properties.
The planning and allowing for the photo voltaic mission took nearly six years earlier than development started at Six Flags, and even that point line was solely attainable due to collaboration with the L.A. County. The system is anticipated ro be absolutely operational within the spring of 2024,
“This may function a blueprint. The county has needed to navigate with them to determine how we allow one thing like this, and I’m joyful to say it’s been an unimaginable expertise not just for county employees however for Magic Mountain,” stated L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
Six Flags hopes different enterprise homeowners will see what it has accomplished shouldn’t be solely good for the surroundings, but in addition good for enterprise. “If we’re in a position to put this mission collectively and say ‘We’ve accomplished it, now allow us to make it easier to do it,’ all we’re doing is paving that floor for the following firm to take the following steps into bettering the surroundings and shifting ahead with what we all know goes to be a really fascinating future,” Alexandria French, a communications and promoting supervisor for Six Flags Magic Mountain advised ABC 7 Information.
Overlaying Canals With Photo voltaic Panels In Arizona
Constructing on the theme that one of the best locations to place photo voltaic panels is the place nobody objects to them, the Gila River Indian Neighborhood not too long ago signed an settlement with the Military Corps of Engineers to place photo voltaic panels over a part of irrigation canal on its land south of Phoenix. The primary part is ready to be accomplished in 2025 and can cowl 1000 ft of the canal. It can generate one megawatt of electrical energy that the tribe will use to irrigate crops, together with feed for livestock, cotton and grains.
“This was a historic second right here for the group but in addition for the area and throughout Indian Nation,” stated Gila River Indian group governor Stephen Roe Lewis. “We’re proud to be leaders in water conservation, and this mission goes to just do that,” Lewis stated, noting the importance of a Native, sovereign, tribal nation taking the lead on the expertise.
A part of the explanation for placing photo voltaic panels over canals is to scale back water evaporation. In locations like Arizona which are going through sustained drought circumstances, evaporation threatens extra extreme water shortages. Though Native American communities have senior water rights, they’re cautious to not lean too closely on their superior claims for worry of being seen as unfair to their neighbors. Another excuse is that the water beneath tends to chill the panels, which will increase their effectivity on sizzling days.
Extended drought within the western U.S. has made water as a key political situation and elevated curiosity in applied sciences like cloud seeding and solar-covered canals as water managers grasp at any answer which may scale back the stress on water reserves. Overlaying a portion of the canal is a crucial indicator of the tribe’s dedication to water conservation, Heather Tanana, a visiting legislation professor on the College of California, Irvine and citizen of the Navajo Nation advised The Related Press.
“There’s a lot worry concerning the tribes asserting their rights and in the event that they accomplish that, it’ll pull from another person’s rights,” she stated. The tribe leaving water in Lake Mead and placing federal {dollars} towards initiatives like photo voltaic canopies is “a fantastic instance to point out that worry is unwarranted.”
The federal authorities has made document funding out there for water saving initiatives, together with a $233 million pact with the Gila River Indian Neighborhood to preserve about two ft of water in Lake Mead, the huge and severely depleted reservoir on the Colorado River. Section one of many photo voltaic canal mission will value $6.7 and the Bureau of Reclamation offered $517,000 for the design.
The Takeaway
Whether or not it’s masking 20 sq. miles within the Abu Dhabi, the roofs of carports in Southern California, or 1000 ft of canal in Arizona, the consequence is identical — changing free sunshine into electrical energy. Who doesn’t like free gasoline, particularly when it provides no local weather warming pollution to the surroundings?
Photo voltaic power is a present — one that may carry on giving for billions of years. We’d be fools to not convert our electrical power techniques to photo voltaic as shortly as attainable, and but each indication suggests we favor placing our very existence in danger with a view to fulfill the greed of company shareholders. Within the phrases of William Shakespeare, “Lord, what fools these mortals be.” The Bard didn’t know the half of it.