We are concentrated solar power plant that makes electricity from the heat of the sun. Parabolic trough systems use solar thermal collectors in the form of parabolic mirrors to harness solar energy and transform it into electrical energy by a state-of-the-art steam turbine. An ultra-high temperature synthetic oil, heat transfer fluid (HTF), provides safe and efficient liquid phase heat transfer from available solar irradiance in the solar field to a closed water-steam cycle with the help of a solar steam generator. The temperature of steam is further increased in booster heaters and supplied to run turbine coupled with a 15KV generator to produce 100MW of net electricity, which is enough to supply 20,000 homes.

We are displacing about 175,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of planting 1.5 million trees or removing 15,000 cars from Abu Dhabi’s roads.

Main Features and Numbers

540° C Superheated
Steam After Booster Heaters

Degree of superheating: more than 30K

Essential for
Daily Start and Stop

Conductivity less than 0.35 μs/cm

395° C HTF

627,840 m² Solar Field
Aperture Area

768 Independently
Moving Collectors

192 Isolatable Loops

27,648 Absorber Pipes

2,750 Tonns of
Heat Transfer Fluid

5 Semi-Automatic
Robotic Cleaning Trucks

STEAM
TURBINE & GENERATOR
Air Cooled Condensation
SOLAR FIELD

100 MWe

Supplies 20,000 Homes

Displaces 175,000 tons of CO2

Saves 200 million gallons of water per year by condensing steam exhausted by steam turbine, which is then recycled back to water-steam cycle.

STEAM

540° C Superheated
Steam After Booster Heaters

Degree of superheating: more than 30K

Essential for
Daily Start and Stop

Conductivity less than 0.35 μs/cm

TURBINE & GENERATOR

100 MWe

Supplies power to 20,000 homes

Displaces 175,000 tons of CO2

Air Cooled Condensation

It saves 200 Million Gallons of water per year by condensing steam exhausted by steam turbine, which is recycled back to water-steam cycle.

SOLAR FIELD

395° C HTF

627,840 m² Solar Field
Aperture Area

768 Independently
Moving Collectors

192 Isolatable Loops

27,648 Absorber Pipes

2,750 Tonns of
Heat Transfer Fluid

5 Semi-Automatic
Robotic Cleaning Trucks

Shams Trivia

Developed on a 2.5 square kilometer plot in Madinat Zayed, the Shams site can accommodate 100 Sheikh Zayed Mosques.

5 million cubic meters of sand (equal to twice the amount of sand that could fit inside the Great Pyramid of Giza) were displaced to level the desert to accommodate the Shams plant.

The Shams site is equivalent to the size of 285 football pitches.

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Impact

The 100-megawatt (MW) Shams Power Plant is contributing to the diversification of the United Arab Emirate’s energy mix and helping to reduce the country’s carbon footprint. The plant is also advancing the Abu Dhabi’s goals of achieving 7% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 and the UAE Energy Strategy 2050 goal of 44% of energy from renewables by 2050.

Technology

Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems use mirrors to focus a large area of sunlight onto a much smaller area. When the concentrated light is converted into heat, it drives a heat engine connected to an electrical power generator. CSP systems are considered a promising solar power technology for large-scale power generation. When CSP is coupled with thermal energy storage (TES), it is capable of producing constant power (baseload) for up to 24 hours a day, making it well suited for integration with the electricity grid.