Jan 29, 2025- A renewable energy breakthrough appeared at the annual World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi last week. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, ADNOC Managing Director and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), announced the largest combined solar power and battery project in the world.
Masdar’s project will combine 5.2GW of solar capacity with 19GW hours storage to produce 1GW uninterrupted 24/7 electric power. It will be the world’s largest combined solar plus battery project according to the company. For the first time, renewable energy will overcome intermittency to become baseload power.
To be built in Abu Dhabi, the big plant will combine solar panels and batteries at the same location. The project shows the rise of the much-hailed multi-trillion-dollar grid-scale battery industry. However, its final size will likely be limited.
New report
A new report from the Dii Desert Energy think tank, “Energy storage, the new frontier”, puts batteries into context. While one-fifth of all final energy is stored, surprisingly little of it is electricity. And this will remain the case even as electricity assumes an ever greater role in future low-carbon energy systems.
