Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, has recently unveiled that China’s Silk Road Fund will acquire a substantial equity stake in one of Dubai Electricity & Water Authority’s (DEWA) projects. Apparently, the owner, developer, and operator of power generation & water desalination plants plans to take over a stake of 24.01% in the 700-megawatt CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) project.

According to reports, the DEWA CSP project is the fourth phase of the largest single-site CSP plant in the world - Mohamed bin Rashid Solar Park and was awarded to an ACWA Power led consortium last year. The project uses a proprietary combination of a central tower & parabolic trough technologies that are used to collect energy from the sun and generate power that will be delivered at levelized tariff of $7.30 cents per KWhr for 24 hours a day.

ACWA Power claims that through this project the plant was expected to save over 2.4 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

ACWA Power’s CEO, Paddy Padmanathan, was quoted saying that the introduction of a new investor into the DEWA CSP is well-positioned with the company’s strategy of sharing investments with partners who will bolster their projects. He further added that Silk Road Fund is a capable partner for the company as well as in complementing DEWA CSP project.

For the record, the world’s largest Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is expected to have a planned capacity of 1000 MW by 2020 and 5000 MW by 2030. The plant uses both concentrated solar power and photovoltaic technology to generate clean power that is expected to cut on 6.5 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.

The executive investment agreements between DEWA, Silk Road Fund, and ACWA Power was signed in the presence of the Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Prime Minister and Vice President of UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, MD & CEO of DEWA, and the President of the Silk Road Fund.