Abu Dhabi’s Department of Energy has begun operations at the world’s largest independent solar power plan, Noor Abu Dubai.

The plant is expected to generate 1,177 megawatts of energy, double the capacity of the 550 MW Desert Sunlight Solar Farm in California, US, the current world’s largest solar plant.

The DoE announced the start of work on Tuesday at the Dhs3.2bn ($871,000) project that was built by the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and a consortium of Japan’s Marubeni Corp and China’s JinkoSolar.

The start of operations is a boost to the UAE’s Energy Strategy 2050, which was launched in 2017 and aims to increase the contribution of clean energy in the total energy mix from 25 per cent to 50 per cent by 2050, while reducing carbon footprint of power generation by 70 per cent.