The Emirates set to start one of the largest solar power plants in the world

The Al Dhafra power plant "began to produce its first kilowatt hours at the end of last year and should be commissioned before the summer," Olivier Bordes, head of the company for the Middle East, told AFP. East.

Located in the middle of the desert, 35 kilometers south of Abu Dhabi, the project presented as "the largest single-site solar power plant in the world" is 60% owned by the Emirati public companies, TAQA and Masdar, the Chinese Jinko Power Technology and the French EDF sharing the remaining 40%.

The photovoltaic panels, installed over a total area of ​​20 square kilometers - or a fifth of the area of ​​Paris - will eventually have the capacity to produce 2,1 gigawatts (GW) and will be able to "offer carbon-free energy to 160.000 “homes, Olivier Bordes told AFP.

Visiting the site on Tuesday, the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, welcomed the "extremely close cooperation" between France and the United Arab Emirates in the field of renewable energies.

The Gulf country, which is one of the biggest oil exporters in the world, will host an already controversial UN climate conference at the end of November.

The president of his national oil company, designated president of COP28, Sultan Al Jaber, does not miss an opportunity to underline the importance of hydrocarbons for the world economy.

But the Emirates are also investing heavily in clean energy, with the ambition of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

According to a press release published Tuesday by Masdar, the Emirati renewable energy company, Franco-Emirati projects have enabled the installation of more than 6,2 GW of clean energy production capacity in the Emirates and elsewhere in the world, for an amount of more than 6 billion dollars (5,5 billion euros).

Bruno Le Maire, who also visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar, said he wanted to "accompany" the oil-producing countries of the region on the path to "decarbonization", by developing projects in renewable energies, nuclear, particularly in Saudi Arabia, and green hydrogen.