Dubai’s solar rooftops double in less than a year

Buildings with solar rooftops in Dubai, the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have almost doubled to reach 435 in only 10 months as a testament to the government’s efforts to have all rooftops fitted with photovoltaic (PV) panels.

More than 200 new buildings have been equipped with solar power since November with a total capacity of 15.6 megawatts (MW) as part of the Shams Dubai initiative, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) said.

The initiative, launched in 2015, aims to have solar panels on all rooftops across the emirate by 2030.

“Shams Dubai allows customers to avoid using very expensive power storage systems by connecting the PV panels to the network,” said Saeed Al Tayer, the managing director and chief executive of DEWA.

The power generated from the solar panels will cover the customer’s needs, but under a net metering system, any surplus power will be fed back into the grid with a credit seen on the customer’s electricity bill.

To help residential and businesses consider solar, DEWA created a solar calculator last month,located on its website. The calculator helps provide customers with comparisons to help promote the installation of solar power.

Other tools available to those interested in installing solar panel systems include Green Deal Dubai, a crowd sourcing platform to help drive down the costs of solar thanks to providing an aggregated list of
providers.

Dubai is targeting to generate 7% of its total power output from clean energy sources by 2020, 25% by 2030 and 75% by 2050.

The DEWA-owned Etihad Energy Services (Esco) installed 144 solar PV panels totaling 37.5 kilowatts (kW) on the utility’s center in Hatta, the utility announced this week. The company will also add solar PV systems to 640 villas in the area by the end of the next year.