Round-the-clock solar reaches financial close in Abu Dhabi

Masdar announced on 13 July 2026 that it had reached financial close on its round-the-clock clean energy project with EWEC: a 5.2GW solar photovoltaic plant with a 19 gigawatt-hour battery energy storage system, designed to deliver 1GW of continuous clean power. The US$6.1 billion total comprises a US$5.1 billion financing package from 13 banks and US$1 billion of Masdar equity. Construction began in October 2025, and the project is expected to be operational in 2027.

In September, The National reported EWEC’s forecast that power and water emissions will fall from about 42 million tonnes in 2019 to 23 million tonnes in 2035, with Abu Dhabi’s solar capacity planned at 14 gigawatts by 2030 and more than 35 gigawatts by 2035, supported by up to 15 gigawatts of battery storage. EWEC also expects annual electricity demand to rise by around 70 per cent between 2026 and 2033.

Firm power changes the design brief

A plant sold as continuous output is a different asset from one sold as daytime energy. Storage sizing, dispatch and operating strategy stop being additions and become the core of the design, and lenders have now financed that model at scale.

Sustainability must improve project performance, resilience and long-term value. It cannot exist only as a branding layer.

What it means for other projects

As the grid adds solar and storage while demand grows, a building or industrial asset’s emissions will depend more and more on when and how it draws power. Load profiles, on-site generation and storage are becoming design questions for ordinary projects, not only for utilities.

The response is to translate sustainability into measurable design, delivery and operating requirements from the earliest project stage, so that a project’s case rests on its performance rather than its labels.