“Outside Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, a vast area of desert is being carpeted with solar panels.

While this sight is more and more familiar around the world, the Round-The-Clock project, developed by Emirati company Masdar, is on a different scale. By combining the solar array with a massive amount of battery capacity, the aim is to store enough power generated during daylight hours so that a minimum of 1 GW of electricity – enough to power between 500,000 and one million homes – is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

This will help to address one of ​the critical flaws with solar power – its intermittency. What is the point of pouring billions of dollars into solar farms, critics have often asked, when they are unable to deliver power when the sun is not shining?

The RTC project ‌aims to answer this question by proving it is feasible to store enough electricity to guarantee a constant supply.”

From Reuters.