Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) announced recently that the UAE has become the first country in the world to produce aluminum using the solar power. DEWA and EGA signed an agreement under which DEWA will supply EGA’s smelter with solar power from the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. (Photo quoted from Government of Dubai’s official website)

DEWA will supply EGA’s smelter with 560,000 megawatt (MW) hours of solar power annually from the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, sufficient to make 40,000 tonnes of aluminum in the first year with the potential for significant expansion. EGA will supply solar aluminum to global customers under the new product name CelestiAL.

Abdulnasser bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA said: “Aluminum is a lightweight, strong and infinitely recyclable metal and these properties mean that as a material it plays a vital global role in the development of a sustainable future. However, it also matters how sustainably aluminum is made. CelestiAL aluminum made in the UAE with solar power, will support modern life for people around the world while also protecting our planet for future generations. This is a great milestone for the UAE and our industry.”

Aluminum is used in products and infrastructure from smart phones to skyscrapers. Its uses include applications that contribute to a more sustainable environment from wind farms to electric vehicles (EVs), and mass transit to solar panels. The availability of solar power on the scale needed for aluminum smelting has been made possible by the UAE’s significant investment in solar power, including in Dubai by DEWA and its Independent Power Producer (IPP) partners.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, located in Dubai, has a current installed capacity of 1,013 megawatts using photovoltaic solar panels. DEWA is implementing an additional 1,850 megawatts of projects using solar panels and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). Eventually, this capacity will reach 5,000MW by 2030.

EGA’s sourcing of solar power from Dubai’s electricity grid will be tracked and traced through the use of the International Renewable Energy Certification System, ensuring that the energy used to produce EGA’s CelestiAL solar aluminum has been sourced from the sun.

(IRuniverse)