Al Layyah Power and Desalination Plant
Thermal MED-TVC + power, Four MED-TVC units are documented by the process contractor: D10 and D11 at 22,850 m3/day each, 45,700 m3/day together, and D12 and D13 at 8 MIGD each, stated as 17 MIGD of daily production. The 2001 plant is recorded in the desalination literature at 10.0 MIGD or 45,460 m3/day. SEWA publishes no water capacity for the site in United Arab Emirates.
The record
- Country
- United Arab Emirates
- Location
- Sharjah
- Coordinates
- 25.355, 55.370
- Technology
- Thermal MED-TVC + power
- Capacity
- Four MED-TVC units are documented by the process contractor: D10 and D11 at 22,850 m3/day each, 45,700 m3/day together, and D12 and D13 at 8 MIGD each, stated as 17 MIGD of daily production. The 2001 plant is recorded in the desalination literature at 10.0 MIGD or 45,460 m3/day. SEWA publishes no water capacity for the site
- Capital cost
- —
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority (SEWA)
- Contractor
- Sidem, engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the MED-TVC units
- Operator
- SEWA
- Finance
- SEWA capital budget; the 2023 power expansion cost AED 2.1 billion
- Award or start year
- 2001
- Commissioned
- 2001
Record last checked 2026-09-20.
History
- 2001
MED plant of 10.0 MIGD, about 45,460 m3/day, commissioned with two units of 5.0 MIGD, the largest MED unit capacity in the world at the time
- 2005
Sidem awarded the first 8 MIGD MED-TVC unit
- 2006
Second 8 MIGD unit awarded and the first completed
- 2007
Second 8 MIGD unit completed
Sources
11 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- Sidem, thermal desalination references, Layyah D12/D13 entry. sidem-desalination.com.
- Two units of 8 MIGD each complete with potabilisation plant, owner Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority, site Layyah, one unit awarded in 2005 and one in 2006, completed 2006 and 2007, lump sum turnkey, MED-TVC. The same page carries a Layyah D10/D11 card of two units of 22,850 m3/day each, 45,700 m3/day in total, awarded 2000 and completed 2002, whose client and site fields wrongly repeat the Al Taweelah entry above it.
- J. W. Vermey and D. Beraud-Sudreau, Breakthrough of MED Technology in Very Large Scale Applications, the Taweelah-A1 Case, International Desalination Association, 2001, Table 2. ida.memberclicks.net.
- records Layyah, Sharjah at 10.0 MIGD (45,460 m3/day) from units of 5.0 MIGD commissioned in 2001, at that date the largest MED unit capacity in the world, which corroborates the D10/D11 figures.
- SEWA, Sharjah Ruler inaugurates the new expansion of Al Layyah power and water desalination plant, 28 November 2023. sewa.gov.ae.
- gives 1,026 MW and AED 2.1 billion and no water figure.
- SEWA water page. sewa.gov.ae.
- carries no capacity for any plant.
- The 37.5, 51 and 59 MIGD figures that circulate in trade press remain untraceable to any SEWA or contractor document.
- Coordinates from OpenStreetMap through Nominatim, which returns Layyah Power Plant at 25.3545407 55.3700718 inside Port Khalid, Sharjah city. nominatim.openstreetmap.org.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
The site stands on the Port Khalid waterfront on Sharjah's Gulf shore and lies 0.25 km from the OpenStreetMap coastline, which a seawater intake requires, measured against the ten natural=coastline ways within 4 km of that point through the Overpass API on 20 September 2026.