Dubai plans to seek partners for development of its first solar-powered desalination plant as part of a plan to reduce reliance on burning fossil fuels, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) chief executive Saeed al-Tayer told Bloomberg this week. The plant will have capacity to produce 545,000 m3/d of potable water and is intended to start up in 2024. The plant will use reverse osmosis technology, the most efficient for desalination. This size plant would require up to 68MW of power to run at full capacity, which equates to a utility-scale solar plant. Although Mr Tayer did not say where the plant would be built, its required coastal location would be remote from the 5GW MBR Solar Park, which Dewa is developing 50km south of Dubai city at Seih al-Dalal (MEES, 20 July 2018). This suggests either a new transmission line from the solar park to the desalination plant or a new integrated solar photovoltaic plant will be needed.