Masdar closes $5.1bn financing for 24/7 solar-plus-storage project in Abu Dhabi

Masdar has secured $5.1 billion in debt for a solar and battery storage complex in Abu Dhabi that the company says will generate electricity around the clock, a scale it describes as a first for renewable power.

The financing sits inside a total capital cost of $6.1 billion. Masdar, formally Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC, is putting in $1 billion of equity. The project is being developed with EWEC as partner.

What is being built

The complex combines a 5.2 GW photovoltaic plant with a 19 GWh battery energy storage system. Pairing generation at that size with long-duration storage is how the output gets smoothed; solar production otherwise collapses after sunset. Masdar says the result is dispatchable, utility-scale power rather than intermittent supply, and that the facility will be the largest and most technologically advanced renewable and storage system of its kind.

The lender group

Thirteen institutions, drawn from Abu Dhabi, the wider Gulf, Europe and Asia, are providing the debt:

• Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
• Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
• BNP Paribas
• Bank of China
• Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank
• Dubai Islamic Bank
• First Abu Dhabi Bank
• HSBC
• KfW IPEX-Bank
• Natixis
• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
• Standard Chartered
• Société Générale

Masdar reads the composition of that group as institutional confidence in large-scale renewable infrastructure, and in its own ability to deliver the build. The company says the close demonstrates that round-the-clock renewable projects have crossed into commercially bankable infrastructure.

Mazin Khan, Masdar's chief financial officer, said the spread of international and regional banks behind the deal signals confidence in the project and in the company's long-term strategy. He said it shows Masdar can pull in global capital and deliver renewable infrastructure at this scale, and tied the project to longer-term economic growth and energy security.

Demand and timing

Masdar connects rising electricity demand to artificial intelligence, data centres and advanced manufacturing — loads that need firm supply rather than power that varies with the weather. The company frames the Abu Dhabi plant as a pillar of the UAE's clean energy strategy and as support for energy security and economic diversification.

Ground was broken in October 2025. Commercial operations are expected in 2027.

Masdar manages a portfolio above 65 GW spanning solar, onshore and offshore wind, battery storage and hybrid solutions, across established and emerging markets. It is targeting 100 GW of capacity by 2030 and says it will keep investing in priority international markets to meet demand for reliable, affordable clean electricity.

The significance of the financing lies in what it prices. Storage-backed solar has usually been sold to lenders project by project, at modest sizes, with intermittency handled by gas-fired backup elsewhere on the grid. A single $5.1 billion debt package for 5.2 GW and 19 GWh of batteries moves that model up several orders of magnitude, and it gives other developers a syndicate structure to copy. Whether the round-the-clock claim holds will be tested once the plant enters service in 2027, when the batteries have to carry the evening peak night after night.