Masdar spent the first weeks of 2026 signing the kind of headlines that make a 100 gigawatt target by 2030 sound within reach. A joint venture in Montenegro. A financial close in Uzbekistan. A baseload agreement in Kazakhstan. Chief executive Mohamed Al Ramahi told Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in January that the company had invested about US$15 billion in projects around the globe in 2025, across more than 40 countries. That is the kind of number that gets cited in pitch decks and panel discussions across the UAE's clean energy and climate finance scene.
But the $15 billion figure is global, and it includes UAE projects. It is not a clean measure of how much capital is actually leaving the country. DSD pulled every Masdar deal announcement dated to 2026 with a disclosed dollar or euro value, built a ledger, and set it against what DEWA and Abu Dhabi's EWEC have committed to their own solar programmes in the same window. The comparison tells a more specific story than the headline number, and it matters for anyone in Dubai raising capital, structuring green finance, or trying to work out how seriously to take Masdar's overseas ambitions relative to its home market.
Masdar's Global Math: 65GW Today, 100GW by 2030
Masdar's own project pages put its operating and contracted portfolio at 65 gigawatts across more than 40 countries, with a stated target of 100 gigawatts by 2030. Reaching that figure requires roughly 35GW of new capacity in under four years, spread across markets as varied as Uzbekistan, Montenegro, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The company is majority owned by Mubadala, Taqa, and ADNOC, which makes its overseas spending a reasonable proxy for how much Abu Dhabi's sovereign capital is willing to deploy into other countries' power grids.
The 2026 Overseas Ledger
Below is every Masdar deal dated to 2026 that carries a disclosed dollar or euro figure, drawn directly from Masdar's own newsroom, project financiers, and trade press covering each signing.
| Market | Project | Disclosed 2026 Value | Status (as of Sept 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uzbekistan | Guzar 300MW solar + 75MWh battery, Kashkadarya region | US$225m financing package (US$195.5m EBRD, US$30m ADB) | Financial close reached January 2026, part of a 2GW national pipeline |
| Montenegro | Krupac (35MW) and Stedim (115MW) solar, plus 400MW+ pumped hydro framework | Undisclosed. EPCG describes it as "hundreds of millions of euros" | Signed July 2026 under a 50/50 joint venture with EPCG targeting 2GW |
| Kazakhstan | 500MW baseload 24/7 renewable project with Samruk-Kazyna | Not disclosed, MOU-stage documents exchanged | Documents exchanged January 2026 at ADSW, pre-financial close |
| United Kingdom | Battery storage in Stockport, Cardiff, Chesterfield | £1bn (about US$1.3bn) committed across the BESS programme | Stockport operational, Cardiff and Chesterfield in development |
| United States | Wind, solar and battery assets in California, Texas, New York, New Mexico | Not disclosed as a standalone 2026 figure | BigBeau project began new offtake deliveries to Southern California Edison, Feb 2026 |
Total 2026 overseas commitments with a confirmed dollar figure: roughly US$1.5 billion (Uzbekistan financing plus the UK battery programme). Overseas capacity under agreement in 2026 without a disclosed price tag: at least 2.5GW across Montenegro and Kazakhstan alone. Masdar's cumulative investment in Uzbekistan since 2021, across all projects: more than US$2 billion, per the company's own disclosure.
Now Compare It With What Is Being Spent at Home
DEWA has been unusually specific about what its own solar programme costs. Trade publication MEED reported total planned investment across all seven phases of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park at AED50 billion, about US$13.6 billion, under the independent power producer model it runs with Masdar and other developers. Separately, AGBI reported that Phase 6 alone carries a price tag of AED5.5 billion, about US$1.5 billion, for 1,800MW that is still finishing construction in 2026. Just across the border in Abu Dhabi, EWEC and Masdar reached financial close in July on a US$6.1 billion round the clock solar and battery project, with Masdar itself putting in US$1 billion of equity.
| Project | Operator | Disclosed Value | Status (as of Sept 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, all phases | DEWA (Dubai), IPP model with Masdar on select phases | AED50bn (about US$13.6bn) total planned investment | 3,860MW commissioned, phases 6 and 7 still in delivery |
| Solar Park Phase 6, 1,800MW | DEWA and Masdar | AED5.5bn (about US$1.5bn) | Roughly 1,000MW added in 2025, remainder expected Q3 2026 |
| Abu Dhabi 24/7 gigascale solar and battery project | EWEC and Masdar | US$6.1bn total, Masdar contributing US$1bn in equity | Financial close reached July 2026, operational target 2027 |
The Solar Park's AED50 billion figure is a multi-year, multi-phase total, not a single-year 2026 spend, while the Uzbekistan and UK figures above are specific deal values disclosed in 2026. The two are not measuring identical things, and DSD is flagging that rather than smoothing it over. What the numbers do show reliably is which side of Masdar's business is disclosing dollar figures at all, and which side is not.
The Real Story Is the Disclosure Gap, Not the Total
DEWA discloses capex because it is a listed, rate-regulated utility answerable to the Dubai Financial Market and its own bondholders. Masdar's overseas deals are structured as joint ventures, IPP concessions, and multilateral bank financings, where the equity slice Masdar itself is contributing is frequently the one number left out of the press release. Montenegro is the clearest example: EPCG's own statement describes the investment as "hundreds of millions of euros" without a figure, even though the JV targets 2GW of capacity, a number roughly equal to Dubai's entire solar park to date.
That pattern matters against the wider backdrop IRENA has been tracking. The agency's Global Landscape of Energy Transition Finance 2025 report put worldwide renewable energy investment at US$807 billion in 2024, out of US$2.4 trillion in total energy transition finance. Gulf state developers such as Masdar and Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power are among the more active non-Western sources of that capital, particularly in Central Asia, where the two firms are now direct competitors on adjacent Uzbek projects financed by the same institutions, EBRD and ADB.
What This Means for Dubai Businesses
- Capital markets and green finance: DIFC and ADGM asset managers structuring green sukuk or ESG-linked funds around Masdar exposure should ask for project-level equity figures, not the aggregated global total, when Masdar's overseas deals lack a disclosed price.
- Power procurement: businesses signing long-term power agreements with DEWA can rely on published capex figures for planning purposes in a way that Masdar's overseas disclosures do not yet support for comparable overseas benchmarking.
- ESG and sustainability reporting: firms citing Masdar's "100GW by 2030" or "$15 billion in 2025" figures in investor materials should note that these are global totals inclusive of UAE projects, not overseas-only figures.
- Sector benchmarking: for the domestic side of this comparison, see DSD's phase by phase tracker of DEWA's solar park build-out, which lays out commissioned versus announced capacity in full.
