DOHA — Gas-rich
Qatar inaugurated Tuesday its first solar
power plant stretching across the desert, a vast site planned to provide up to
10 percent of the tiny Gulf nation’s energy supply.
اضافة اعلان
The solar farm in Al-Kharsaah, west of the capital
Doha, is “one of the biggest” in the Middle East, said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi,
the emirate’s energy minister and president of QatarEnergy.
It was launched in 2016 in partnership with France’s
TotalEnergies and Japan’s Marubeni as part of a broader push by Qatar — one of
the world’s biggest producers of liquified natural gas — to invest in solar
energy.
The project, at a cost of 1.7 billion Qatari riyals
(about $467 million), consists of some 1.8 million solar panels and covers an
area of more than 10sq.km.
Operational since June, the plant has a capacity of
800 megawatts and will “expand” further in coming years, Kaabi told a press
conference.
Kaabi said the plant is part of Qatar’s “strategic
initiatives to build projects that contribute to reducing gas and thermal
emissions”.
During the day, sun-tracking technology moves the
panels to ensure maximum solar exposure, while at night, robotic arms clean off
the dust.
Organizers of the football World Cup, which begins
on November 20, have used the huge solar plant to back claims that Qatar will
host the first “net zero” World Cup.
But Kaabi said he could not confirm the Al-Kharsaah
plant will provide power for the stadiums hosting matches during the
November-December tournament.
Qatar, while lagging behind other
Gulf states in the
solar race, has announced a target of 5 gigawatts of solar energy capacity by
2035.
It announced two major solar projects in August that
will more than double its energy output from the renewable source within two
years.
Saudi Arabia has also announced a target of 5
gigawatts of solar energy capacity, but vowed to reach it by 2030. The UAE has
had solar plants for more than a decade.
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