DEWA initiative Shams Dubai offers opportunities for new and existing businesses

When council resolution number 46 of 2014 was issued to regulate the connection of small-scale solar energy to Dubai’s power grid, there was initial uncertainty amongst the solar industry as to how the resolution would be implemented and, precisely, what benefit might be derived from it.

As such the March 2015 launch of Shams Dubai by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA was a great boost both to those looking to invest in establishing businesses, and customers looking to benefit from long-term energy savings.

Shams Dubai is a DEWA initiative which provides the regulatory framework for PhotoVoltaic (PV) Solar equipment suppliers, contractors and consultants to register their services in order to win work. The contractor will install officially licensed PV products into a client’s premises in order to help meet their energy needs. Any excess produced is then fed back into the DEWA grid, and the client receives credits that can be used for future energy requirements (e.g. at night), therefore offering adopters the possibility to remove most or all of their requirement for paid electricity – an investment which could prove to be invaluable over time.

In the last 12 months DEWA has accredited 36 consultant firms and 143 engineers and technicians, who have installed upward of 12MW of PV equipment on client buildings. Enquiries from customers looking to utilise the service rose 50% in the final 3 months of 2015 and this trend is continuing in 2016, with some 55,000 website hits from people looking to install equipment.

Such growth in end-user demand has inevitably led to increased interest from industry heavyweights with global experience looking to Links Group to assist them in establishing in mainland Dubai to tap in to this burgeoning market.

Article by on Mar 29th 2016