Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) has awarded the local Dutco Balfour Beatty a AED46m ($12.5m) contract for initial works on its new headquarters building in Dubai.

The contract includes shoring, dewatering, excavation, piling, fencing and associated works for the project which is located in Cultural Village in the Al-Jadaf area.

Dewa says the 20,000 square-metre headquarters, known as Al-Sheraa, will be the tallest, largest, and smartest government net zero energy building in the world.

The building will have 16,500 square metres of photovoltaic solar panels on the roof to produce over 3,500 kilowatts (kW). It will also include an additional 2,000 square metres of building-integrated photovoltaic panels. The total renewable energy generated from the building is over 5,800 megawatt hours (MWh) per year.

Completion is expected by the end of 2019.