The local Utico Middle East and China’s Shanghai Electric have agreed to build a AED1.5bn ($408m) clean coal-fired power plant in Ras al-Khaimah, the first clean coal power plant in the GCC.

The clean coal power plant will generate 270 megawatts (MW) of power and the project is expected to be operational in 2015. The scheme is planned to utilise carbon capture technology that is 80 per cent when operational.

Coal-fired power plants produce an estimated total of 65 per cent of the world’s power today, but the Ras al-Khaimah plant will be the first power plant in the GCC to run on clean coal.

Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) is also planning to develop a coal-fired power plant at Hassyan, the site that was allocated for the emirate’s first gas-fired independent power project (IPP).

Dubai has a long-term strategy to diversify its energy mix and clean coal is to account for 12 per cent of total generation by 2030.