Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Power Corporation (ADPower) and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power have announced the successful financial closing of the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination plant, Taweelah IWP.
The plant is located at 50 km north of Abu Dhabi. The Taweelah IWP will be the first stand-alone independent water project in Abu Dhabi.
The new plant will be located at the Taweelah power and water desalination complex in Abu Dhabi, with completion expected in 2022.
The planned capacity of the project is 200 million imperial gallons a day (909,000 m3/d), it will guarantee supply to the city of Abu Dhabi throughout the year.
The project is to cost AED3.19 billion, with funding sourced from a combination of senior project finance loans worth a total of AED2.71 billion, in addition to equity contributions from shareholders and operating cashflow from pre-operations.
The Taweelah plant’s loan structure is a “Soft Mini Perm”, with an expected refinancing period of a maximum three years starting after the commencement of the Taweelah project’s commercial operations, the two companies said in a statement.
Loans (including conventional and Islamic tranches) have been arranged by a group of local and international banks including: Emirates NBD, Natixis, Mizuho Bank, Siemens Bank, Bank Boubyan and The Norinchukin Bank. Natixis is the Agent Bank.
“We are delighted to announce that our financial targets have been met and that this new initiative can now get underway.” Said Othman Al Ali, CEO of EWEC
“Achieving such a strategic milestone at this stage in our relationship with EWEC is a sure indicator of the type of success we can expect from this project.” Said Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power
The Taweelah plant will set new benchmarks for its size, efficiency and cost of water produced.
Supplying 909,200 m3/day, it will be 44 percent larger than the world’s current largest reverse osmosis plant of 624,000 m3/day.
The desalination facility is sufficient to meet the water demand for over 350,000 households. A major driver for the adoption of reverse osmosis instead of thermal desalination is the higher energy efficiency it offers.
ADPower and Mubadala Investment Company hold a 60% equity interest in the Taweelah project while ACWA Power holds the remaining 40%.
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