UAE begins construction of world-first 24/7 Gigascale clean energy system

The government of Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with Masdar and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), has formally launched construction of what is being described as the world’s first large-scale “round-the-clock” renewable energy system, combining a 5.2 GW (DC) solar photovoltaic plant with a 19 GWh battery-energy-storage system (BESS). 

The facility is designed to deliver up to 1 GW of continuous baseload power generated exclusively from renewables and storage, allowing dispatchable output 24 hours a day.

Contracting announcements reveal that major module suppliers and battery-system manufacturers have been identified: for example, JA Solar and Jinko Solar are named as preferred PV module suppliers, and CATL as battery supplier. Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors include Larsen & Toubro and POWERCHINA.

The project is being promoted as a cornerstone of the UAE’s clean-energy transition and aligns with its national strategy to increase renewable-capacity share and reduce dependency on fossil-fuel-based generation. 

From an engineering and infrastructure perspective, the scale and integration of solar-PV and utility-scale battery storage in a desert environment pose significant design and construction challenges: terrain preparation for a 5.2 GW solar array, grid-interface design for continuous dispatch, large-scale BESS installation and thermal management, and civil works to connect storage and generation systems into the transmission network.

The initiative also requires coordination of system-level engineering: ensuring the solar arrays and batteries operate seamlessly as a unified dispatchable unit, designing cooling and heat-dissipation systems for the BESS, and implementing operations control capable of switching between generation and storage to maintain basin-wide grid stability under high-renewable penetration.

If delivered as planned, this project will set a new benchmark in gigascale renewable infrastructures, demonstrating that solar-battery combinations can serve as reliable baseload power rather than just intermittent generation.