The report quotes Frank Wouters, the director of Masdar Power, who spoke at a media briefing in Abu Dhabi.
Wouters told reporters that in Spain alone the company has three solar projects underway worth about $1 billion (€709.8 million).
A 20-megawatt plant will start producing power this month and two 50 MW facilities will start this year, he said. Masdar also has stakes in the 1 GW London Array offshore windfarm and a 6 MW offshore wind project in the Seychelles.
Abu Dhabi, which holds almost all the oil reserves in the United Arab Emirates, is investing in solar and wind power all over the world to pioneer the use of renewable energy, Bloomberg News said.
Masdar City, a key component of Abu Dhabi’s aim to generate at least 7 percent of the power it uses from renewable sources by 2020, serves as headquarters for the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Growth in power demand to more than 20,000 MW by the end of the decade would require about 1,500 MW from projects such as wind and solar plants, according to data from Abu Dhabi’s utility.
The company’s domestic projects include the Shams 1 project, the largest concentrated solar plant in the Middle East, which is 45 percent complete and will be ready next year, Bloomberg said.
Masdar expects to award a construction contract for the 100 MW Noor 1 photovoltaic plant by the end of 2011 and may start building a 30 MW wind farm on Sir Bani Yas island.
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