Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, known as Taqa, and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (Ewec) have reached financial close on the Dh3.6 billion ($980 million) Al Dhafra power plant that will supply electricity to data centre projects in the UAE.
The project, which has a total capacity of 1 gigawatt, is 85 per cent funded through debt financing, with local and international banks supporting the deal, Taqa said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on Tuesday, where its shares are traded.
Standard Chartered Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, Doha Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank and HSBC are among the banks involved in the transaction.
ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank Bank of China), Germany’s KFW, National Bank of Kuwait, RAK bank, Woori Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Boubyan Bank and Ajman Bank are the other lenders.
The financial close of this project comes after Taqa, which is building the project, signed a 24-year Power Purchase Agreement with Ewec in April. Taqa also owns and operates the gas-fired power plant, with construction work already under way.
“AI represents a major opportunity for both economic growth and increased energy demand,” Frank Possmeier, chief investment officer, Taqa’s generation business, said.
“Meeting this demand requires an agile, secure and sustainable energy mix that prioritises decarbonisation and flexibility. The Al Dhafra gas turbine power plant exemplifies this approach.”
The UAE is developing artificial intelligence infrastructure as the use of the advanced technology increases across different sectors. One such initiative is Stargate UAE, a major AI infrastructure project in Abu Dhabi.
Stargate UAE is being developed by Khazna Data Centres, a G42 company, alongside OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco and SoftBank, within the 5 gigawatt UAE-US AI Campus in Abu Dhabi.
Timelapse: Abu Dhabi's AI campus Stargate UAE progresses rapidly 00:14
“The flexible baseload power that will be delivered by this plant complements our growing pipeline of utility-scale renewables and battery storage, providing the essential transitional capacity needed to integ
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