Power plants in arid climate zones

This open dataset places 5,916 power plants in arid Köppen-Geiger climate zones, totalling about 1,843,249 MW of capacity. Across the 614 with an asset-level CO₂ figure, emissions reach about 1,469 Mt CO₂/yr, at a median intensity of about 2,611 t CO₂ per MW of combustion capacity. The most common plant type in this zone is solar.

5,916power plants
1,843,249MW capacity
614with CO₂ data
2,611median t CO₂ / MW

Plant types in arid zones

Solar: 2,203 plants2kSolarGas: 1,107 plants1kGasCoal: 808 plants808CoalWind: 794 plants794WindOil: 352 plants352OilHydro: 333 plants333HydroBiomass: 107 plants107BiomassOther: 66 plants66Other

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
4SHAIBA (SEC)OilSaudi Arabia6,794
5Palo Verde nuclear power plantNuclearUnited States6,782
6Datang Tuoketuo power stationCoalChina6,720
7Togtoh power stationCoalChina6,720
8Hamarawein IPP coal projectCoalEgypt6,600
9Gadani Power ParkCoalPakistan6,600
10Qurayyah Thermal power plantOtherSaudi Arabia6,275
11Gansu Wind FarmWindChina6,000
12Fermi America Project Matador power stationGasUnited States6,000
13Guodian Yulin Jingbian power stationCoalChina6,000
14Xiaohaotu power stationCoalChina6,000
15Hohhot Jinshan cogen power stationCoalChina5,840

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