H.E. Eng. Essa bin Hilal Al-Kuwari, the President of Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation “KAHRAMAA” announced that KAHRAMAA has completed the prequalification of 16 international Solar Power Developers within the process of KAHRAMAA Request for Bids (RFB) for Qatar first large scale solar Photovoltaic (PV) power plant planned to be released before the end of 2018.
The solar plant comes within KAHRAMAA plans to diversify power generation resources and increase renewable energy percentage in Qatar’s energy mix.
The announcement was made during a press conference for KAHRAMAA President on Sunday 7/10/2018 at KAHRAMAA main building.
KAHRAMAA President said, ”Since our country has an abundance of solar radiation, and from monitoring the recent developments in solar panel manufacturing along with their decreasing costs, and from studying the natural gas that can potentially be saved, KAHRAMAA has decided to go forward with a utility-scale solar power plant.”
Al-Kuwari added that the project comes in implementation of the higher directives of HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Amir of Qatar to reduce dependence on oil and gas to achieve the economic diversity, and in line with the economic and environmental development pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030.
“As a first stage, 350 MW will be connected to the grid by 2020 in achievement of the strategic objective set in QNDS 2018 – 2022“. He clarified.
10 km2 land plot located west of Doha near Al-Kharsaah area has been allocated for the construction of the solar power plant, with a total capacity of at least 700 MW. The environmental aspects were observed in coordination with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.
The project will be based on Public - Private Partnership (PPP) concept for the encouragement of investment in large scale projects. The project is structured as Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) for 25 years, where the ownership will be transferred to KAHRAMAA after the end of the term. Siraj Energy participates in the project as a Strategic National Investor.
KAHRAMAA attracted international companies and consortiums with wide experience in the development of solar plants, and 16 international developers have been prequalified.
Under this project it is expected to get competitive power generation prices, save natural gas used in traditional power generation, along with reducing carbon emissions and preserving the environment. It is one of the objectives of the national program for conservation and energy efficiency “Tarsheed” for the reduction of 7% of harmful carbon emissions in Qatar. Since it was launched by KAHRAMAA in 2012, Tarsheed managed to reduce 10.6 ton of emissions.