About an hour south of Dubai — depending on the traffic that can often choke the streets of the Emirati capital — a giant tower rises like a beacon.
Glowing a blinding white that’s almost painful to look at, the 250-metre-high construction looms over the flat, desert landscape for miles around.
But unlike so much of the colossal, conspicuous wealth that embodies the city nearby, this tower is not in aid of — or a tribute to — the fossil fuels that underpin the local economy. It is, rather, a glimpse of a future where oil and gas aren’t needed at all.
“This plant that we’re standing in could power 450,000 Australian homes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” said Dr Keith Lovegrove, the head of the Australian Solar Thermal Energy Association (AUSTELA). “That’s about the number of households in Brisbane, for example, in a site that’s very much smaller than Brisbane.”
The solar ‘beacon’ at the Noor Energy solar thermal plant. The 100MW plant uses a 250 metre-high solar absorber tower to harness the Sun’s rays. Although jet black for maximum efficiency, the solar absorber looks like a ‘beacon’ when well over 1,000 suns are focused on it by the surrounding field of 70,000 heliostatic mirrors. More Details here.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is more commonly known by its commercial name, Noor Energy. This plant Dr Lovegrove refers to is the world’s largest solar thermal power plant and it was visited by a delegation of Australians, including Darren Miller CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and Kane Thornton (below), the Clean Energy Council (CEC) CEO, as a ‘fact finding’ excursion during COP28 in early December. Here they are at the briefing session: Dr Lovegrove is 2nd from the right, standing, and the receiver tower can be seen through the window behind. — Read More
