Building and operating the first solar power plant in a harsh desert environment has posed unique challenges for Shams 1, according to Abdul Al-Obaidli, process performance engineer for Shams Company.

Speaking at the MEED Mena Water conference on 6 November, Al-Obaidli said engineers had to find creative ways to address the design challenges that the desert presents in the form of wind, dust, and lack of water near the complex.

“We had to remove 5 million cubic metres of sand to level the desert to accommodate Shams 1,” he said. To help improve efficiency of the solar panels, a seven metre high wall was built to protect them from wind. The solar mirrors are also adjustable, which allows them to be rotated depending on the weather conditions.

High-tech cleaning trucks are also used to clean the solar fields twice a week, without which the fields would lose their inflectors, he said. 

In estimating solar insulation in preparation for designing the plant, engineers found that satellite technology is not reliable because it does not detect dust. “Don’t trust satellite data. We found that satellites produced a 15-20 per cent overestimation of solar insulation,” he said. Engineers instead found ground estimations more reliable.

Dealing with the sun also posed challenges. “You cannot control the sun, you have to find clever ways to deal with it as it is not a controlled resource like you have in other power plants,” he said.

He said Shams 1 is working with Masdar to develop tools that will do a more effective job of forecasting weather.

Dealing with these challenges boosted the costs 3-4 times higher than similar plants elsewhere in the world. But part of the reason for the high cost was the lack of experience in developing a solar plant in the desert. “If we were to build the same Shams 1 today, it would be 30-40 per cent cheaper,” he said.