On November 30, 2022, the Dubai 700 MW Solar Thermal and 250 MW Photovoltaic Solar Power Station Project, which was constructed by Shanghai Electric General Contractor, was successfully connected to the grid for power generation.
This marks the successful completion of another milestone of the 700 MW solar thermal and 250 MW photovoltaic solar power plant projects in Dubai. The project is a solar thermal project with the largest installed capacity, investment scale and molten salt thermal storage scale in the world, and the largest solar power generation project in the world so far.
With a span of four years, the desert has become prosperous. CSPPLAZA has sorted out the important nodes in the construction process of the project up to now.
In October 2018, the Dubai Solar Thermal Project started the field leveling work. In order to protect the ecological environment, in the early work, it is not only necessary to safely transfer all kinds of wild animals, but also to safely transfer the trees near the project construction site, and a special road has been built for each tree. After being approved by relevant departments, the project will officially start construction. On this basis, the project completed about 8 million cubic meters of sand and soil transfer and 9 square kilometers of site leveling in just over a year, laying a solid foundation for subsequent construction.
In November 2019, Dubai Solar Thermal Project completed the pile insertion and concrete pouring of the 1000th column of the Solar Thermal Mirror Field; The installation and basic commissioning of the automatic production line equipment in the heliostat installation workshop have been completed, and the first piece of heliostat has also been assembled; By the end of December, the on-site commissioning, acceptance and formal production of the automatic heliostat production line were completed, the installation of the upper part of the heliostat was started, and the fast forward key was pressed for the next tank installation.
On December 2, 2019, Shanghai Electric Dubai 700MW Solar Thermal+250MW Photovoltaic (Noor Energy No. 1) Hybrid Power Station Project also ushered in an important node. Its landmark building, the heat collecting tower, has reached 110 meters. The structure of the tower was capped the next month, and the landmark project of the tower was completed. The civil structure of the tower is 220 meters, and the total height is 260 meters with the heat collector. 100MW tower type solar thermal power generation is the core of the project, which will create the world’s most advanced application technology and high collector height。
On March 27, 2020, the first overflow tank in the trough PT1 area was successfully hoisted in place, and 9 tanks are planned to be arranged. As an important container storage equipment in the heat transfer oil system, a single overflow tank is 52 meters long and more than 200 tons in net weight. It is the largest single transport part of the project at present.
In April 2020, the Dubai Solar Thermal Project successfully completed the modular overall hoisting of storage tanks, marking a major progress in the heat transfer and storage island of the project.
On February 26, 2021, the installation of 60000 heliostats for tower units of Dubai 700 MW Solar Thermal+250 MW Photovoltaic Solar Power Station Project was completed, marking the end of the mirror field installation.
On May 9, 2021, the water injection test for the first molten salt storage tank of the trough type unit 2 of the Dubai Solar Thermal Project was successfully passed; The installation of internal pipes of tower type partial heat collecting tower has been completed. This marks the completion of the preliminary work of the trough type follow-up molten salt system, and the phased success of the tower type generator unit pipeline installation.
On June 7, 2021, the high and intermediate pressure cylinders of the channel type unit 2 steam turbine of the Dubai Solar Thermal Project were successfully put in place; The hoisting of 9 overflow tanks of the trough type unit 3 was successfully completed, creating favorable conditions for subsequent construction.
On September 4, 2021, the tower unit salt production of Dubai 700 MW solar thermal and 250 MW photovoltaic solar power plant project started smoothly, laying a solid foundation for the operation of the molten salt system.
On September 5, 2021, the distributed control system of the main power building of the slot type unit 1 of the project was powered on successfully once, and all the technical indicators of the main power cabinet, communication cabinet, control cabinet and other cabinets met the requirements, laying a good foundation for the subsequent commissioning work
On September 28, 2021, Dubai 700 MW Photothermal and 250 MW Photovoltaic Solar Power Station Project succeeded in the first grid reverse transmission of 400 kV substation for tower units, with all parameters showing normal and all power receiving equipment operating well, laying a solid foundation for subsequent water cycle commissioning of tower units, tank unit oil injection and other nodes
In October 2022, the commissioning of salt injection and desalination for the steam generation system of the tower unit of the Dubai Solar Thermal Project was completed, laying a solid foundation for steam production of the subsequent system; The auxiliary photovoltaic area 4 of slot type unit 1 was connected to the grid smoothly. Steam outlet of steam generation system and hot flushing of air cooling island are in progress.
On November 29, 2022, Dubai 700 MW solar thermal and 250 MW photovoltaic solar power plant project slot type unit 1 was successfully connected to the grid for power generation.
The Dubai 700 MW solar thermal and 250 MW photovoltaic solar power plant project adopts the world leading “tower+trough” centralized solar thermal power generation technology. The total power generation capacity of the solar thermal part reaches 700 MW, and its configuration includes 1×100 MW tower molten salt thermal storage generator set and 3×200 MW trough molten salt thermal storage generator set. The tower unit is configured with a 15 hour thermal storage system, and each trough unit is configured with a 13.5 hour thermal storage system; The heat transfer medium of the slot type unit is heat transfer oil, which is used for molten salt heat storage through the oil salt heat exchanger.