At the opening ceremony of the 10th Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum held not long ago, the Chinese side announced that, building on the "Eight Major Common Actions" of the first China-Arab Summit, it will work with the Arab side to build a "Five Major Cooperation Framework" and accelerate the building of a China-Arab community with a shared future. One of the "Five Major Cooperation Frameworks" is to build a more multi-dimensional energy cooperation framework and support Chinese energy enterprises and financial institutions in participating in renewable energy projects in Arab countries.

As early as 2017, the UAE government launched the "National Energy Strategy 2050", planning to raise the share of clean energy in total energy consumption to 50% by 2050. In July 2023, the UAE government approved the "Updated National Energy Strategy 2050", planning to more than triple renewable energy installed capacity by 2030 and raise the share of clean energy in the total energy mix to 30%. China-UAE cooperation in renewable energy not only started early and is large in scale, but has also been continuously improving in quality and upgrading in recent years, carrying breakthrough and demonstration significance.

　　Light of the Desert

The UAE has vast desert areas with abundant sunshine all year round, and its rich solar resources make photovoltaic power generation an ideal clean energy alternative for the UAE. According to data from the Energy Institute, the UAE currently ranks second in the world in per capita solar energy consumption.

Driving about 45 kilometers south from downtown Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, one enters a vast desert. As far as the eye can see, rows of photovoltaic panels stretch out in succession. This is the Al Dhafra PV2 Solar Power Plant contracted by China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), currently the world's largest single-site solar power plant ever built and an important project in the green energy field under the Belt and Road Initiative.

The project covers an area of about 21 square kilometers and mainly includes a 2.1 GW photovoltaic power generation area (PV area), a 33/400 kV booster station (HV area), and a 400 kV switching station (ESF area).

China Machinery Engineering Corporation is responsible for the design, procurement, construction, and two-year operation and maintenance of the project. They overcame difficulties such as a short construction period, large scale, and harsh on-site natural environment, and adopted the world's leading photovoltaic technologies and equipment. Nearly 4 million solar panels all use monocrystalline bifacial double-glass photovoltaic modules; tracking brackets adjust the angle of photovoltaic modules according to the direction of sunlight to ensure maximum power generation efficiency; remote-controlled automatic cleaning robots and fully dry waterless cleaning are used, ensuring cleaning efficiency while causing no damage to the modules. The ESF switching station adopts the world's most advanced technology and, once completed, can achieve unattended operation.

The project officially started construction in January 2021 and officially entered commercial operation in June 2023, with a DC-side installed capacity of 2.1 GW. Its power generation can meet the electricity demand of about 200,000 households in the UAE and reduce carbon emissions by more than 2.4 million tons per year, providing about 5,000 local job opportunities. As of mid-June 2024, the project had cumulatively contributed 6.175 billion kWh of clean electricity to the UAE.

Gui Shuju, plant manager of the Al Dhafra Solar Power Plant of China Machinery Engineering Corporation, introduced that the photovoltaic modules, tracking brackets, cleaning robots, and unattended switching station in the project all use Chinese technology and Chinese products. In terms of project operation and management, the Chinese team integrated Chinese standards with UAE and European standards and innovated a unique set of management standards for the solar power plant, ensuring safe operation without accidents and also verifying the stability and reliability of Chinese equipment and technology.

In November 2023, at the completion ceremony of the Al Dhafra Solar Power Plant, Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, said that the completion of the Al Dhafra Solar Power Plant marks a strategically significant step by the UAE and Abu Dhabi in the field of clean and renewable energy and is of great significance to the UAE's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Abdulaziz Al Obaidli, Chief Operating Officer of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, believed that the Al Dhafra project is an example of Chinese photovoltaic manufacturers making positive contributions to the world's goal of achieving carbon neutrality.

　Opportunity of Wind Energy

Previously, the public generally believed that wind speeds in the UAE were low and that wind energy was not feasible at utility scale. However, innovations in climate technology, larger turbines, lower hardware costs, and the discovery of the UAE's unique weather phenomenon of strong nighttime winds have made wind energy projects in the UAE economically viable.

In October 2023, the UAE Wind Power Demonstration Project contracted by Power Construction Corporation of China (POWERCHINA) was officially put into operation in Abu Dhabi and connected to the grid for power generation. The project has a total installed capacity of 117.5 MW and consists of four wind farms.

Li Junqi, Deputy General Manager of POWERCHINA's Middle East and North Africa Regional Headquarters, said that because the four islands have very different topography, geology, and transportation conditions, and are not only scattered but also far apart, the difficulty of design, logistics, construction, and management all increased. The POWERCHINA team overcame difficulties such as long distances, strong winds and rough seas, and high temperature and humidity, and refined the transportation plan to ensure that the wind turbines were safely delivered to the construction site. After being put into operation, the project can supply power to more than 23,000 UAE households and will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 120,000 tons per year.

As the UAE's first wind power project, it has received great attention and support from the UAE government. On September 28, 2023, Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and others attended the project's inauguration ceremony. The UAE News Agency commented that the project marks the first inclusion of utility-scale wind power in the UAE's energy mix and is of milestone significance.

Li Junqi said that the project is a concrete practice of China-Arab production capacity cooperation driving the export of Chinese technology and Chinese equipment and has made positive contributions to the export of China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry.

　　Hydrogen Hub

In July 2023, the UAE government approved the "National Hydrogen Strategy", with the goal of producing 1.4 million tons of hydrogen per year by 2031 and increasing that to 15 million tons per year by 2050, thereby ranking among the world's top ten green hydrogen producers. The UAE has also committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. To this end, the UAE plans to establish a hydrogen hub to accelerate industrial adoption of hydrogen and cultivate supply chains and infrastructure to attract global energy companies.

Masdar City is a new city invested in and built by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company Masdar. Once completed, it will be the world's first "zero-carbon" and "zero-waste" city powered entirely by renewable energy. During the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a high-speed green hydrogen refueling pilot station integrating hydrogen production and refueling, "H2GO", operated successfully in Masdar City. The scene of hydrogen-powered test vehicles provided by Toyota, Al-Futtaim Automotive, and BMW lining up to refuel attracted widespread attention at the time. Behind this, Sinofuelcell (Guofu Hydrogen) and UAE energy solutions company Broaden Energy provided technical and equipment support for the construction of the hydrogen refueling pilot station.

Tao Chunlong, Middle East partner of Guofu Hydrogen, said that the hydrogen refueling station is operated by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) of the UAE, and the hydrogen provided will receive green certification under the "International Renewable Energy Certificate (I-REC) Standard" of the international certification organization. The project will be used to collect data to understand the long-term feasibility of hydrogen vehicles in the UAE. Guofu Hydrogen provided 50 standard cubic meters per hour (Nm3/h) water electrolysis hydrogen production and 70 MPa hydrogen refueling equipment and technical services for the project, and also provided a 70 MPa Type IV cylinder on-board hydrogen supply system solution for fuel cell buses operating in Abu Dhabi. This is a successful case of UAE local enterprises using partnerships to achieve sustainable transportation solutions and support the energy transition.

In June, Broaden Energy signed a preliminary agreement with the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development to invest 1 billion dirhams to establish a hydrogen equipment manufacturing center in the UAE, which will be Abu Dhabi's first hydrogen equipment manufacturing complex. By promoting the local production of hydrogen energy equipment, the complex will become a cornerstone of the regional hydrogen economy, not only strengthening the UAE's energy infrastructure but also creating new jobs and advancing sustainable development and innovative industrial solutions through value chain development.

Tao Chunlong said that while the UAE is vigorously developing renewable energy, it needs advanced technology and production capacity in equipment manufacturing, and China is precisely a global manufacturing powerhouse, especially in new energy technologies and equipment. China and the UAE have complementary advantages in new energy cooperation and broad prospects.