A major Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant is being planned for development by Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company. Named Shams1, the CSP plant will have a maximum capacity of 100MW and is expected to cost between $400 – $500 million.
The technology used to produce the electricity will be parabolic trough technology and it will be located close to the city of Madinat Zayad. It will consist of 258,048 parabolic trough mirrors, 192 solar collector assembly loops with eight solar collector assemblies per loop, 768 solar collector assembly units, and 27,648 absorber pipes. It covers an area of 2.5 square kilometres.
Masdar had earlier called for bids for a companies who were interested in building and operating the power plant to submit their tender by early March 2008. These applications would be closely considered with an announcement expected in the short term.
The project has an expected commission date in late 2010.
An announcement is expected shortly, more news on Shams 1 as soon as a company has been announced.
Update: 17 November 2011
The director of Masdar Power, Frank Wouters has made an announcement at a conference in Dubai and has said that the power plant will begin operating in the third quarter of 2012. In the announcement he also made mention of the proposal of the 100MW Noor 1 photovoltaic solar energy plant which is at the stage where the company is waiting consent from the Abu Dhabi executive council to begin building.
The company is also planning a second phase of the Shams project that will result in the capacity of the power plant doubling. However this development is still in the early stages of planning and is yet to be given any kind of approval.