The photo is sourced from dewa.gov.ae
The PSP will have two tanks with the elevation difference of 150 meters. The solar park Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of 5 GW is located in the proximity of the PSP and will be providing power to pump the water from the lower tank to the upper tank via a 1.2 km tunnel. The accumulated water will be discharged to the lower tank during the high-demand hours actuating the power generators. According to DEWA, the factor of converting the accumulated kinetic energy to power will be making 78.9%, and the energy storage capacity will be 1,500 MW*hr, which is equivalent to the energy consumption of Luxembourg during one-fourth of the day. The project’s lifecycle will be 80 years.
The PSP in Hatta will be the first hydroelectric pumped-storage power plant in the territory of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where so far fossil energy sources dominate in the energy mix. According to Ember research centre, gas-fired CHPPs in 2022 accounted for 82.5% of the overall power generation in UAE, while as nuclear power plants – for 13%, solar and bio-mass generators – for 4.5%. Baraka nuclear plant is the only one in the country comprising three operating generating units with total capacity of 4 GW. The construction of the fourth unit has been completed already, and its commissioning is planned for 2024.
As of today, the Middle East does not belong to the regions, leading in introducing of low-carbon energy sources. The green-house gases emissions indirectly prove that, and in 2021, in UAE this metric constituted 516 grams of CO2 equivalent per 1 KW*HR of the generated energy. In Latin America it was 264 grams, and in the world – 442 grams of CO2 equivalent.
