Bloomberg reports that a new record low price for large scale solar power of US2.42 cents per kilowatt-hour has been set in Abu Dhabi - Cheapest Solar on Record Offered as Abu Dhabi Expands Renewables.

The bid marks another record for solar technology prices, which have fallen almost 70 percent in the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Competition among Chinese solar manufacturers including Jinko has brought down the cost of delivering panels while more investors have become comfortable with backing the technology, reducing borrowing costs.

Solar panels have declined in cost by more than 100x over the last 40 years. #VERGEcon. Just broke 50 cents per watt last week. pic.twitter.com/9jY3Q3ddUk

— Bill Gross (@Bill_Gross) September 21, 2016

NPR has an article (from back in March) on the new Shams 1 solar thermal power plant in Abu Dhabi - Flush With Oil, Abu Dhabi Opens World's Largest Solar Plant.

Abu Dhabi, the most oil-rich of the United Arab Emirates, is now home to the world's single-largest concentrated solar power plant. The 100-megawatt Shams 1 plant cost an estimated $750 million and is expected to provide electricity to 20,000 homes, according to the BBC.

Why, you might ask? Bloomberg says the less oil Abu Dhabi uses for local consumption, the more it can export.

Sultan Ahmed al Jaber, head of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., speaking at a news conference for the plant's opening over the weekend, said it is part of a "strategic plan to diversify energy sources in Abu Dhabi." ...

Shams 1 uses 768 adjustable parabolic "trough mirrors" to focus sunlight onto a water boiler that produces steam, activates turbines and finally generates electricity, reports the website Clean Technica. The middle step in the process, it says, is to use natural gas to superheat the water.

The plant, located about 75 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, is similar in design to Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) located in California's Mojave Desert. Although Shams 1 claims to be the single-largest plant, the nine SEGS plants taken together generate more than three times as much energy and serve more than 10 times as many households at peak output.

Inhabitat has a post on a proposed art installation for Abu Dhabi's desert that also generates (non-optimally) solar power - Lunar Cubit: Gigantic Solar Pyramids to Power Abu Dhabi.

The motto of these sleek black pyramids is “Renewable Energy Can Be Beautiful.” No, the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas did not suddenly develop a green streak — the project, called Lunar Cubit, is a pyramid-shaped solar power complex designed to power thousands of homes in the Abu Dhabi desert.

The proposal placed first in the Land Art Generator Initiative, a contest which asks designers to integrate art and interdisciplinary processes with the concept of renewable energy. Each proposed project must generate enough green energy to power thousands of homes, while also serving as an innovative public art installation.

Lunar Cubit consists of eight small glossy solar panel pyramids that surround a central large pyramid in a semi circle. The pyramids act as a lunar calendar, and the central pyramid is inversely illuminated according to the phases of the moon — meaning it is at full illumination with the new moon. The surrounding smaller pyramids act like the hands of a clock for the eight phases of the lunar calendar, illuminating in different combinations to indicate the waxing or waning of the moon. Each is outfitted with energy-efficient LED lights, of course.

By day, the pyramids function as solar energy-producing power plants. Each of the frameless solar panels is made of glass and amorphous silicon, and they’re able to produce enough renewable energy to power 250 homes. That may not seem as productive as a solar power farm, yet it is truly exceptional considering it is also a public art installation. If actually constructed, Lunar Cubit would pay back its cost of construction in five years, through the megawatt-hours of clean renewable energy that it produces.

Green building of the week is this hotel planned for Abu Dhabi (assuming it isn't halted as a result of the gulf real estate bust) - Abu Dhabi’s Spiraling Helix Hotel.

The Helix Hotel in Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Bay doesn’t have floors like we’re used to - instead it spirals in sections of a corkscrew from top to bottom with no clear breaks, flowing from retail to residential, and hotel suites to saunas. The hollow center keeps foot traffic flowing while infusing interior spaces with coastal air and natural light, while on the outside GROW panels are fast at work harnessing solar and wind energy. Because of its unique design, every room has a slighly different view — perfect for watching over the contruction of Zaha Hadid’s Sheikh Zayed Bridge just next door.

Leeser Architects‘ design of the Helix Hotel won the invitation-only competition sponsored by Al Qudra Real Estate and QP International. In cooperation with environmental design consultants at Atelier Ten, the Helix Hotel, which nearly floats right into the Persian Gulf, will maximize use of local natural resources likes sun, wind, and ocean water while keep guests comfortable in all 208 rooms.

GROW panels made from 100% recyclable polyethylene will be installed on the exterior and will collect energy from both the sun and the wind. Interior temperatures will be managed by a cascading ocean-fed waterfall in the atrium that will help maintain interior climate and humidity levels, while a retractable glass wall will open up to cool sea breezes that constantly circulate fresh air.

Renewable Energy World has an article on Abu Dhabi's new renewable energy (basically solar power) target - Abu Dhabi Sets 7 Percent Renewables Target.

The second World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi opened on January 19. An estimated 15,000 delegates are expected at what the German State Secretary for the Ministry of Environment, Matthias Machning, referred to as "the Davos of the Energy World," a reference to the annual, highly influential economic summit held in Davos, Switzerland.

The Government of Abu Dhabi announced on the eve of the conference that it is setting a goal of 7 percent of the country's power to come from renewable energy by 2020. Much of this will be created by the flagship Masdar initiative. As well as responsibility for the construction of Masdar, a large, carbon-neutral city being developed in the Emirate, the Masdar Initiative is investing large sums of money in other renewable energy initiatives.

So far, the Masdar city project has procured US $300 million of equipment and services, and expects to procure over US $1 billion by the end of the year. The project has also invested funds in other renewable energy projects, such as the London Array of offshore wind in the UK, and Finnish wind energy company WinWind.

Speaking at a press conference Ziad Tassabehji, director of asset management and Utilities for the Masdar Initiative, a Government-funded project, confirmed that almost all of this 7 percent target will come from solar energy. The Emirate expects power demand to be between 20 and 22 gigawatts by 2020, and with a maximum wind resource in the region of 100 megawatts, that will leave well over 1 gigawatt to come from solar power.

REW has a report on the emerging solar power partnership between Abu Dhabi and Germany - Abu Dhabi: The New Prince of Solar Technology?.

"The Sun," said Jalal al-Din Rumi, one of the world's greatest poets, "must come." And the Arab world, which was an engine for centuries of innovation in science, philosophy and the arts, is now poised to become a leader in solar technology.

Though reported to have 8.5% of the world's oil reserves and 3.3% of the world's gas reserves, Abu Dhabi has launched a fund worth more than US $10 billion to find advanced renewable energy technology solutions to climate change.

Solar energy is also set to power another major Abu Dhabi project — Masdar City. The ultra modern city, due to be completed by 2015, aims to be the first zero-carbon emission and car-free city in the world, housing 50,000 inhabitants and 1,500 companies.

Now Masdar PV, a company belonging to the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a state-owned vehicle for renewable energy investment owned by the UAE, has announced plans to produce up to 280 MW of thin-film PV a year in Eastern Germany in partnership with Colexon Energy, a Hamburg-based company.

Under the deal, two facilities to manufacture large-scale PV modules, 5.7 square meters in size, are to be built between 2009 and 2013. One factory is to be located in Erfurt in Thuringia; the other in Abu Dhabi.

The facilty in Erfurt Kreuz covering 8 hectares is due to start production at the end of 2009. Production in Abu Dhabi is expected to start in 2010.

The PV production facilities at Erfurt will have an initial capacity of 50 MW. An estimated 180 new jobs will be created in the first phase, but this number is expected to grow to 600 jobs to meet the company's medium-term production capacity goals, said Sebastian Fasbender of the Bundesverbandes Solarwirtschaft, BSW, the German solar industry's umbrella organisation.

Masdar PV is expected to benefit from close cooperation between manufacturers, suppliers, universities and research institutes to be found in the strong PV cluster in Erfurt to develop new technologies and products rapidly.

Thuringia has some of the the strongest PV clusters in the world with 47 solar companies active in the region, employing 2,500 people.