UAE firm begins testing solar concentrator

Dubai-based Wahaj Solar has begun testing a prototype next generation solar concentrator at Masdar City.

The company’s managing director Dr Ayman Al Maaitah told the Intersolar conference in Dubai that the protype is a beam-down solar concentrator of 10 metres in diameter that can generate temperatures of around 1,000°C.

This heat energy can be stored in basalt rock for 24-hour off-grid power production, or it can be used for industrial heat applications such as smelting metal and producing solar fuels such as green hydrogen.