World´s tallest MSR tower top receiver completed in UAE

Shanghai Electric has completed the Molten Salt Receiver (MSR) tower top receiver in Dubai's DEWA IV phase 700 MW Concentrating Solar Power and 250 MW Photovoltaic Hybrid Project. The company safely constructed the tower—the tallest such structure in the world—in a record 240 days, despite taking extensive precautions due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It is currently the world's largest photothermal and photovoltaic integrated power plant project, covering an area of 44 Sq.Km.

Mr. Abdulhameed Al Muhaidib, NE1 project executive managing director, said: "This has been a very challenging project, especially with the important extra tasks related to keeping people healthy and safe. On this landmark project, more than 4,000 construction workers from all over the world, as a diverse team, we work together, work hard for a goal."

Shanghai Electric, which is the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for Noor Energy 1 (Project Owner), supplied personal protective equipment (PPE) to all workers and implemented procedures for virus prevention and control. The safety measures have ensured that labor, schedule, and budget disruptions were kept to a minimum.

The MSR is about 40 meters high and is mounted on top of the heat tower body, which is about 222 meters high. The resulting approx 262-meter tower makes the tallest tower solar power station in the world today. The project uses a "one plot for Tower Concentrating Solar Power, three plots for Parabolic Through Concentrating Solar Power, and rest for Photovoltaic" solar power combination with a total power generation reaching 950 MW. When completed, it will provide green energy for 320,000 households, reducing carbon emissions by 1.6 million tons per year. The project has played a significant part in Dubai's 2050 energy strategy. The strategy, which planned to be 7% realized by 2020, is now running ahead of schedule, with 9% of the region's 11,700 MW electricity requirements now powered by solar, and other renewables.

The station's power generation principle is based on the "light-heat-electricity" energy conversion process, which is the molten salt absorbs the solar energy reflected by the heliostat through more than a thousand receiver tubes, heating the molten salt flowing in the MSR. The resulting molten salt passes through a steam generation system to produce high-pressure, high-temperature steam, which in turn drives a turbine generator.

Hydraulic steel strands are vertically hoisted and distributed as control units for precise lift control at each lifting point. The operating device is checked and commissioned in detail before lifting, a process that involves the comprehensive use of safety technology. Internal level monitors, bottom anti-collision devices and surrounding monitoring equipment ensure the overall safety of the MSR in place.