Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Power Corporation (ADPower) and Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power have achieved the financial close of the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination plant.

The new plant will be located at the Taweelah power and water desalination complex in Abu Dhabi, with completion expected in 2022. Abu ADPower and Mubadala Investment Company hold a 60% equity interest in the Taweelah project while ACWA Power holds the remaining 40%.

The project is to cost AED 3.19 billion (US$871.09 million), with funding sourced from a combination of senior project finance loans worth a total of AED2.71 billion (US$735.00 million), in addition to equity contributions from shareholders and operating cash flow from pre-operations.

The Taweelah plant’s loan structure is a "Soft Mini Perm", with an expected refinancing period of a maximum three years starting after the commencement of the Taweelah project’s commercial operations, the two companies said in a statement.

The senior project finance loans (including conventional and Islamic tranches) have been arranged by a group of local and international banks including Emirates NBD, Natixis, Mizuho Bank, Siemens Bank, Bank Boubyan and The Norinchukin Bank. Natixis is the Agent Bank.

The Taweelah plant will set new benchmarks for its size, efficiency and cost of water produced. Supplying 909,200 m3/day, it will be 44 percent larger than the world’s current largest reverse osmosis plant of 624,000 m3/day. The desalination facility is sufficient to meet the water demand for over 350,000 households. A major driver for the adoption of reverse osmosis instead of thermal desalination is the higher energy efficiency it offers