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 far-off, 35 kilometers outdoors 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 just isn’t 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 gasoline on this planet, it acknowledges that change can and should happen. The UAE is traditionally scorching. Burning the fuels it produces makes it even hotter. The Al Dhafra photo voltaic set up is anticipated to cut 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 gasoline manufacturing firm for Abu Dhabi. On the ceremony to fee the 4 million photo voltaic panel, 2 GW Al Dhafra photo voltaic farm — the biggest single level photo voltaic set up on this planet at 20 sq. kilometers — Al Jaber stated, “Al Dhafra is a part of an extended and proud historical past of vitality innovation, made doable because of the imaginative and prescient of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE.
“This world main photo voltaic venture demonstrates exceptional progress in solar energy effectivity, innovation and value competitiveness — setting a brand new file 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 vitality transition by tripling renewables capability and doubling vitality effectivity by 2030. Al Dhafra is an instance of the size of the ambition wanted around the globe.”
In lower than fifteen years, the UAE has grow to be a worldwide chief in photo voltaic vitality. In 2009, Masdar switched on the nation’s first photo voltaic venture at 10MW. The Al Dhafra photo voltaic set up is 200 occasions that dimension. Because the countdown to COP28 within the UAE begins, this mega venture initially achieved the world’s lowest tariff at monetary shut, and demonstrates the nation’s longstanding dedication to decarbonization at residence and around the globe.
The UAE can also be a world chief in photo voltaic vitality use in keeping with the newest information from The Vitality Institute Statistical Assessment of World Vitality. It ranks second globally when it comes to per capita photo voltaic vitality consumption. In underneath a decade, the nation has surpassed main nations by putting in photo voltaic vitality as a part of the nation’s vitality 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 venture that can cowl the roofs of all of the lined parking areas on the amusement park is sort of full. That is welcome information as a result of everybody needs extra photo voltaic however not if they’ve to take a look at it. Placing panels on parking buildings is without doubt one of the least controversial methods so as to add solar energy there’s.
The venture will rank as the biggest single web site business renewable vitality venture in California and largest photo voltaic venture 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 financial system is constructed on our formidable transition to a cleaner, greener future. Six Flags’ dedication to scrub vitality is the kind of work that can energy our future and guarantee our youngsters have a wholesome planet to name residence,” stated California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“This can be a thrilling day for Six Flags as we advance our dedication to environmental stewardship, considerably rising solar energy technology capability at our parks,” stated Jason Freeman, Six Flags vp of operations. “Six Flags has positioned a excessive precedence on efforts to enhance and shield the atmosphere, main the way in which for theme park firms around the globe and capturing the eye of different personal 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 packages with extra waste, water and vitality 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 satisfy 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 venture took virtually six years earlier than building started at Six Flags, and even that point line was solely doable due to collaboration with the L.A. County. The system is anticipated ro be absolutely operational within the spring of 2024,
“It will function a blueprint. The county has needed to navigate with them to determine how we allow one thing like this, and I’m completely satisfied to say it’s been an unbelievable expertise not just for county workers however for Magic Mountain,” stated L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
Six Flags hopes different enterprise homeowners will see what it has carried out just isn’t solely good for the atmosphere, but additionally good for enterprise. “If we’re capable of put this venture collectively and say ‘We’ve carried out it, now allow us to allow you to do it,’ all we’re doing is paving that floor for the subsequent firm to take the subsequent steps into bettering the atmosphere and transferring ahead with what we all know goes to be a really attention-grabbing future,” Alexandria French, a communications and promoting supervisor for Six Flags Magic Mountain informed ABC 7 Information.
Masking Canals With Photo voltaic Panels In Arizona
Constructing on the theme that the very best locations to place photo voltaic panels is the place nobody objects to them, the Gila River Indian Group just lately 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 toes of the canal. It’ll 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 neighborhood but additionally for the area and throughout Indian Nation,” stated Gila River Indian neighborhood governor Stephen Roe Lewis. “We’re proud to be leaders in water conservation, and this venture goes to do exactly 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 cut back water evaporation. In locations like Arizona which might be 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 scorching days.
Extended drought within the western U.S. has made water as a key political subject and elevated curiosity in applied sciences like cloud seeding and solar-covered canals as water managers grasp at any resolution that may cut back the strain on water reserves. Masking a portion of the canal is a vital indicator of the tribe’s dedication to water conservation, Heather Tanana, a visiting regulation professor on the College of California, Irvine and citizen of the Navajo Nation informed 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 “an amazing instance to indicate that worry is unwarranted.”
The federal authorities has made file funding accessible for water saving initiatives, together with a $233 million pact with the Gila River Indian Group to preserve about two toes of water in Lake Mead, the large and severely depleted reservoir on the Colorado River. Part one of many photo voltaic canal venture will price $6.7 and the Bureau of Reclamation offered $517,000 for the design.
The Takeaway
Whether or not it’s protecting 20 sq. miles within the Abu Dhabi, the roofs of carports in Southern California, or 1000 toes of canal in Arizona, the end result 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 atmosphere?
Photo voltaic vitality is a present — one that can carry on giving for billions of years. We might be fools to not convert our electrical vitality programs to photo voltaic as rapidly as doable, and but each indication suggests we choose placing our very existence in danger as a way 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.
