South Korea provided four of its APR1400 units for the Barakah nuclear station, on the Persian Gulf coast west of the city of Abu Dhabi in the UAE. Barakah is the first commercial nuclear power facility in the Arab World.
Units 1, 2, and 3 at Barakah are all commercially operational while Unit 4 was recently connected to the national grid and has started generating electricity, with full commercial operation approaching.
Once commercially operational, Unit 4 will raise Barakah’s total electricity generation capacity to 5.6 GW, equivalent to 25% of the UAE’s electricity needs, delivering more than 40 TWh of electricity per year.
The three commercially operating Units at Barakah are already generating more than 30 TWh of electricity, or just over 12% of the UAE’s electricity production.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Barakah nuclear power station is already the largest single generator of electricity and the largest source of clean electricity in the region.
The UAE has said it wants to use nuclear power as the main source for generating non-hydrocarbon-based electricity.
Most of the energy produced in the UAE is from natural gas and oil. The country is also a major exporter of oil and gas with natural gas accounting for 63% of total energy supply in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency.
Energy News Beat