Apricum Senior Advisor
Dietmar Blank
Apricum is pleased to announce the appointment of Dietmar Blank to its team of senior advisors, bringing highly profound technical and commercial expertise to Apricum’s solar and water projects in the MENA region.
Among other achievements, Mr. Blank is one of the architects of the 1998 program for the privatization of the water and electricity sector in Abu Dhabi, creating the template for a practical and transparent procurement process for project-financed independent water and power producer (IWPP) projects, which has been recognized and replicated worldwide in the sector.
Mr. Blank is one of the leading experts and driving forces behind the introduction of solar PV into the power sector mix in Abu Dhabi and the wider MENA region, co-leading the competitive tender for the 1,177 MW Sweihan solar PV project in May 2017 – where the world’s lowest tariff at the time was achieved. Mr. Blank designed the bespoke tariff structure weighted for summer production to meet Abu Dhabi’s unique power demand curve. Most recently, Mr. Blank also co-led the tendering of a greenfield 2,000 MW solar PV plant including battery storage at Al Dhafra (PV2 project), the tendering of a 2,400 MW CCGT plant in Fujairah (Fujairah F3) and the world’s largest membrane-based reverse osmosis deslination plant in Taweelah.
With over 30 years of experience, Mr. Blank draws his impressive breadth and depth of expertise in the design and creation of large and complex power, water and solar projects in the MENA region from his previous roles as commercial and contracts engineer and IWPP senior engineer at Emirates Water & Electricity Company (EWEC), Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Company (ADWEC), Abu Dhabi Department of Energy and the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA).
Mr. Blank holds a master of science in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Stuttgart.