UAE’s First-Ever Wind Farm Is Being Built

The UAE is diversifying its power supplies by introducing new sources of sustainable energy.

It’s doing so by opening several wind farms across the country, which are expected to power more than 23,000 homes a year.

A wind farm is an area filled with wind turbines that harness wind from land or sea to generate electricity. This is all being made possible by clean energy company Masdar, which is based in Abu Dhabi.

There will be four project locations. Sir Bani Yas Island, Delma Island and Al Sila Island in Abu Dhabi will be home to the first wind farms, along with Al Halah in Fujairah.

The project also includes a solar farm on Sir Bani Yas Island, Masdar has announced. It’s the first time the UAE has added utility-style wind power to its energy-providing sources.

Emirates Water and Electricity Company (Ewec) has signed a purchase agreement with Masdar for the power generated from the wind projects, which means that it will be used within the UAE power grid.

It comes ahead of Dubai’s Expo City preparing to host COP28, the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Running from Thursday November 30 to Tuesday December 12, politicians, scientists and activists from across the globe will visit Dubai for the occasion, with the conference looking to assess how the world is handling climate change.

The focus of the event will be to see how countries around the world are performing in relation to the Paris Agreement – which set the goal in 2016 of keeping the rise in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.