Business Bureau, Gulf Today

Sanad Powertech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, has been awarded a contract for the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations of the steam engine and power generator of Shams Power Company, one of the largest operational concentrated solar power plants in the world.

The contract was signed during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, held from Jan.11 to 18, 2020.

The project within the domestic portfolio of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, Masdar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mubadala, covers 2.5 square kilometres and has a capacity of 100 megawatts.

Equipped with a matrix of 768 parabolic trough collectors, the solar field generates clean, renewable electricity from solar heat rather than light. Through a system of parabolic mirrors which serve as solar thermal collectors, electricity is generated using conventional steam-powered turbines.

Khaled Al Qubaisi, CEO of Aerospace, Renewables and Information Communications Technology at Mubadala, said, “This collaboration between two leading companies in power and clean energy is a major step in our efforts to maximise joint business opportunities among all Mubadala companies. Sanad Powertech’s ability to provide competitive and high-quality services to an important future sector, such as clean energy, is a key advantage of this new contract.”

For his part, Mansoor Janahi, CEO of Sanad Powertech, said, “The award of the new service contract is further evidence of Sanad Powertech’s technical excellence that enables it to continually expand its scope of work. Having successfully delivered high-level services to the local energy sector over the past 18 years, the new contract will provide a strong opportunity for Sanad Powertech to enter the clean energy sector, one of the most important sectors of future growth, through partnership with Masdar, a key player in the renewable energy industry on local and global levels.”

Majed Al Awadi, General Manager of Shams Power Company, said, “Our contract with Sanad will have positive effects on the quality performance of the solar power station given the company’s long experience and advanced human expertise in maintenance.” Shams Power Company is a key contributor toward achieving Abu Dhabi’s objective of generating seven per cent of the emirate’s required energy from renewable resources by 2020, and the UAE target of generating 27 per cent its electricity from clean energy sources by 2021 and 50 per cent by 2050.

Sanad Powertech was born out of Mubadala Aerospace’s renewed strategic focus on customer support through engineering and leasing excellence, underpinned by industry-leading reliability, innovation and technology. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, Sanad builds on more than three decades of experience in the aviation industry. With its name deriving from the Arabic word for support, Sanad supports its customers where and when it matters most.

As an integrated service provider, Sanad is perfectly positioned to maintain and lease your engines seamlessly, whilst still offering MRO services or leasing independently. And these two distinct divisions are Sanad Aerotech and Sanad Capital, respectively. Together, they form a unified brand that embraces and drives our strategy based on employing Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies.

Shams Solar Power Station is a concentrating solar power station near Madinat Zayed, Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.

The solar power station is located approximately 120 kilometres southwest of Abu Dhabi and 6 kilometres from Madinat Zayed on the road from Tarif to the Liwa Oasis. It became operational on 17 March 2013.

The first part, Shams 1, uses parabolic trough technology and has a capacity of 100 megawatts (MW), which makes it among the largest parabolic trough power stations in the world.

Shams 1 has been commissioned in early 2013 and will be followed by Shams 2 and Shams 3 stations.

Shams 1 is a 100 MW concentrating solar power station which uses parabolic trough technology. It displaces 175,000 tonnes of CO

2 per year and its power output is enough to power 20,000 homes.

The station consists of 258,048 parabolic trough mirrors, 192 solar collector assembly loops with 8 solar collector assemblies per loop, 768 solar collector assembly units, and 27,648 absorber pipes. It covers an area of approximately 2.5 square kilometres.