Power plants in arid climate zones

This open dataset places 5,904 power plants in arid Köppen-Geiger climate zones, totalling about 1,881,591 MW of capacity. Across the 610 with an asset-level CO₂ figure, emissions reach about 1,454 Mt CO₂/yr, at a median intensity of about 2,540 t CO₂ per MW of combustion capacity. The most common plant type in this zone is solar.

5,904power plants
1,881,591MW capacity
610with CO₂ data
2,540median t CO₂ / MW

Plant types in arid zones

Solar: 2,201 plants2kSolarGas: 1,148 plants1kGasCoal: 801 plants801CoalWind: 794 plants794WindOil: 354 plants354OilHydro: 332 plants332HydroBiomass: 107 plants107BiomassGeothermal: 48 plants48Geothermal

Climate class: Köppen-Geiger (WorldClim). Backbone WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).

Largest emitters (Mt CO₂/yr)

Togtoh power station: 27.9 Mt CO2/yr27.9Togtoh pow…Mundra Thermal Power Project (Adani): 26.2 Mt CO2/yr26.2Mundra The…SHAIBA: 22.0 Mt CO2/yr22.0SHAIBAMedupi power station: 21.3 Mt CO2/yr21.3Medupi pow…Tata Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project: 21.2 Mt CO2/yr21.2Tata Mundr…East Hope Metals Wucaiwan power station: 20.9 Mt CO2/yr20.9East Hope …Qurayyah Thermal power plant: 20.8 Mt CO2/yr20.8Qurayyah T…Fugu Qingshuichuan power station: 20.7 Mt CO2/yr20.7Fugu Qings…RABIGH: 19.7 Mt CO2/yr19.7RABIGHDalate power station: 18.4 Mt CO2/yr18.4Dalate pow…

CO₂ — measured (US EPA / EU ETS) or modelled (Climate TRACE), per source.

Largest plants in arid zones

#PlantFuelCountryMW
1Al-Nuwaiseeb power plantGasKuwait7,200
2East Hope Metals Wucaiwan power stationCoalChina7,000
3Grand CouleeHydroUnited States of America6,809
4SabiyaGasKuwait6,803
5SHAIBA (SEC)OilSaudi Arabia6,794
6Palo Verde nuclear power plantNuclearUnited States of America6,782
7Datang Tuoketuo power stationCoalChina6,720
8Togtoh power stationCoalChina6,720
9Hamarawein IPP coal projectCoalEgypt6,600
10Gadani Power ParkCoalPakistan6,600
11Qurayyah Thermal power plantGasSaudi Arabia6,275.2
12Gansu Wind FarmWindChina6,000
13Guazhou Changle power stationCoalChina6,000
14Fermi America Project Matador power stationGasUnited States of America6,000
15Guodian Yulin Jingbian power stationCoalChina6,000

Cite this

Inzonex PowerAtlas (2026). Power plants by Köppen climate zone — Arid. Derived from WRI GPPD, Climate TRACE and Köppen-Geiger/WorldClim (CC BY 4.0). https://inzonex.co.uk/poweratlas/climate/arid/

Methodology & sources