DEWA's Solar Park Phase 7: 2 GW of Solar and 8.4 GWh of Storage

Dubai is procuring 8,400 megawatt-hours of battery storage in a single phase. That figure, rather than the solar capacity beside it, is what makes the seventh phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park worth the attention of anyone in the storage supply chain.

The project pairs approximately 2,000 MW of photovoltaic generation with a 1,400 MW battery system running six hours. DEWA invited proposals for the phase, which is being taken forward on the independent power producer model DEWA has used across the park's earlier stages.

What is actually being tendered

The Solar Park has been built in phases over more than a decade, each one larger and each procured competitively. Phase 7 continues that pattern and adds storage at a scale the earlier phases did not carry.

On the IPP model, a project company is formed to build, own and operate the plant, selling output to DEWA under a long-term arrangement. DEWA is the offtaker. It is not the entity buying modules, inverters, containers or cells.

Commissioning has been indicated in phases from August 2027, which is a realistic horizon for equipment supply planning rather than a distant ambition.

The project sits inside the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the emirate's net zero strategy — the policy frame we set out in the UAE's renewable energy strategy.

A note on the capacity figures

Reports differ, and the difference is explicable rather than sloppy.

DEWA's earlier invitation for expressions of interest referenced 1,600 MW of PV with associated storage. The tendered project has since been reported at 2,000 MW of PV with 1,400 MW of storage. Scope evolving between the expression-of-interest stage and the request for proposals is ordinary in procurement of this size.

The practical guidance for anyone citing a number: say which stage it came from. A figure from an EOI and a figure from a tender document are answering different questions, and treating them as contradictory reports of the same thing produces confusion that is entirely avoidable.

Who is circling it

Developers reported as attending the project roadshow included Engie, ACWA Power, Alfanar, Amea Power, Etihad Water & Electricity and Masdar.

That is a field combining international utilities, Saudi developers and UAE national champions — much the same competitive set now contesting Saudi rounds, which we cover in NREP Round 7. Gulf utility-scale renewables is increasingly a single competitive market with several offtakers rather than separate national markets.

The transaction advisory team has been reported as Deloitte as lead and financial adviser, CMS as legal adviser and Sargent & Lundy as technical adviser. Advisory appointments are a useful signal of how far a process has progressed and how it is likely to be structured.

Why the storage is the story

Eight thousand four hundred megawatt-hours is a large order in any market.

Six hours of duration at 1,400 MW is also a specific design choice, and it says something about what Dubai wants the asset to do. Short-duration storage handles frequency response and smoothing. Six-hour duration is aimed at shifting bulk solar generation into the evening — the hours when Gulf demand stays high and PV output has gone. That is a capacity function, not just a stability one. Where six hours sits on the duration spectrum, and what changes beyond it, is covered in long-duration energy storage.

For the supply chain it means cells, enclosures, thermal management, power conversion and long-term service arrangements at volume. We cover the underlying economics of that asset class in how grid batteries make money and the regional context in battery storage in the Middle East.

For a supplier the route is the same as on the Saudi side and it is worth stating plainly: DEWA is not your customer. The winning consortium and its EPC contractor are. The award is the moment the buying decisions start, and the suppliers already qualified are the ones in that conversation.

What to watch

• The award, naming the winning consortium.
• The tariff, which will be read against the benchmarks the Solar Park's earlier phases set.
• The storage technology and supplier, which at this scale is a market signal in its own right.
• Whether the final capacity settles at the tendered figure, since scope has already moved once.

A note on sourcing

Arcnex has not seen DEWA's tender documentation. The figures above come from DEWA's own announcements and established trade reporting, and where sources differ we have said so rather than picking the tidier number. If you are bidding or supplying, DEWA's documentation is the authority.

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