UAE state-run renewables developer Masdar has reached financial close on what it called the world’s “first gigascale 24/7 renewable energy project”.
The massive 5.2GW, 19GWh “round the clock” (RTC) solar-plus-storage system represents a total capital investment of US$6.1 billion. The recent US$5.1 billion funding of the project came from a consortium of 13 local and international banks, along with US$1 billion of equity funding from Masdar.
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The remarkable scale of the project—which Masdar called “the largest and most technologically advanced system of its kind in the world”—enables it to effectively produce 24-hour renewable energy using the combination of solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS). It will deliver 1GW of baseload solar power, Masdar claimed.
Masdar broke ground at the site in October 2025 and expects to begin operations in 2027. It is being built in Abu Dhabi by Masdar and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), and is likely to deliver power to AI data centres, based on the comments by EWEC and Masdar executives around making the UAE “a global hub for artificial intelligence research” and “redefining the role of renewable energy for the information age”, but no formal offtake or power supply agreement has been announced.
Mazin Khan, Masdar’s chief financial officer, said the financing deal “demonstrates the confidence of the international banking community not only in a landmark project but also in Masdar’s financial strength”.
In May, Masdar and EWEC inked another deal—a Collaboration Framework Agreement (CFA)—to build 30GW of solar PV capacity and 8GW of BESS across the UAE. In January it signed a partnership with French energy major Engie, reaching financial close on the 1.5GW Khazna solar project.
