Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) has awarded the contract for the development of the 1.5 GWac Khazna solar project to ENGIE and Masdar. Following the contract, a power purchase agreement was signed between EWEC and the developers. Under the agreement, ENGIE and Masdar will design, finance, construct, and operate the plant near the Al Khazna area of Abu Dhabi. The contract was finalised after a detailed procurement process. The PPA has been structured as an energy purchase agreement, with EWEC paying only for the net energy supplied by the plant to the grid. 

The project’s financial closure is expected by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. Once operational, it will generate enough electricity to power around 160,000 homes across the UAE and offset approximately 2.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. The project will reportedly comprise nearly three million solar panels. Additionally, it will incorporate digital technologies such as IoT-based sensors, data analytics, robotic cleaning systems, and cloud-based monitoring for performance optimisation and reduced maintenance costs.

The project is part of EWEC’s wider initiative to expand solar capacity in Abu Dhabi and the UAE. It supports EWEC’s broader clean energy targets to increase solar generation capacity in Abu Dhabi to 18 GW by 2035 and meet 60 per cent of power demand from renewable and clean energy sources by the same year, in line with the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy’s (DoE) Clean Energy Strategic Target 2035 for Electricity Production.