France's EDF in talks to build hydropower plant in RAK

France’s EDF is in talks with the Ras Al Khaimah Municipality to set up a five-gigawatt pumped storage hydropower plant in the emirate, which would be the “biggest in the world”, a senior executive said.

The project, which will be capable of storing energy for up to 12 hours, is a “country-level" initiative aimed at balancing electricity supply in the UAE, where clean energy is playing an increasingly significant role in the energy mix, Luc Koechlin, chief executive of EDF Middle East, told The National on the sidelines of the RAK Energy Summit on Thursday.

“Most of the solar farm development is happening in Abu Dhabi and Dubai but for the storage and especially pumped storage, you need mountains,” Mr Koechlin said.

Connecting the power grids will help to effectively manage the energy generated from solar, nuclear and large-scale storage systems, he added.