Doha, October 18 (QNA) – HE Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President and CEO of QatarEnergy Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi said Tuesday that the Al Kharsaah Solar Power Plant (KSPP) is one of the country’s strategic initiatives to build projects that contribute to reducing gas and thermal emissions.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, His Excellency said the new plant will achieve about a million-ton reduction in annual carbon dioxide emissions.

HE Minister Al Kaabi highlighted some of the environmental efforts and sustainability requirements that were taken into account in building this landmark plant, saying:

“The site of Al Kharsaah was chosen following extensive scientific studies to determine the sites with the best possible operational efficiency and maximum economic value, placing great consideration to the geological, environmental, and social impacts of establishing this station.”

Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA) about the decision of the “OPEC +” countries to reduce oil production by about two million barrels per day, His Excellency considered that the decision is based on “commercial and technical foundations.”
His Excellency said, as a former OPEC+ member, the organization’s decisions are based on technical and commercial foundations and data that are studied to achieve a balance between supply and demand.

His Excellency the Minister refused to politicize the decisions, especially as they are taken consensually and to achieve the general interest of the members.

On the other hand, His Excellency stressed that Qatar will not transfer gas shipments already contracted with Asian buyers to Europe this winter, stressing the country’s commitment to its contracts with any buyer, whether in Europe, Asia, or others.

He said that Qatar Energy aims to become the world’s largest LNG trader through organic growth and that it is already working on forming commercial teams, denying any plans to acquire another commercial company to grow its LNG business.

In a related context, His Excellency pointed out that Qatar and the French company Total Energy will enter into future partnerships together.

The Al Kharsaah Solar PV Power Plant is owned by a joint venture between affiliates of QatarEnergy Renewable Solutions (60 percent), Marubeni (20.4 percent), and TotalEnergies (19.6 percent).

The plant is the first in Qatar and one of the largest in terms of size and capacity in the region, with a total capacity of 800 megawatts (MW).

KSPP was constructed on a 10 square kilometer land area. It includes more than 1,800,000 solar panels that utilize sun-tracking technology to follow the movement of the sun to ensure the most efficient use of land and maximize daily production. It utilizes robotic arms and treated water to clean the solar panels at night to enhance the plant’s production efficiency.

KSPP started supplying electrical power to Qatar’s electricity grid last June, marking the startup of the 400 MW first phase of the 800 MW plant. Full capacity was reached by the end of the second phase. The KSPP can provide the national grid with about 10 percent of peak electricity demand.

Building this plant comes as part of implementing QatarEnergy’s updated Sustainability Strategy, which reemphasizes its commitment, as a major energy producer, to the responsible production of clean and affordable energy to facilitate the energy transition.

In addition to increasing solar capacity to over 5 GW, the strategy targets reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions, and deploying carbon capture and storage technology to capture over 11 million tons per annum of CO2 in Qatar by 2035.

It also aims to further reduce the carbon intensity of LNG facilities bolstering Qatar’s commitment to responsibly supply cleaner LNG at scale in support of the energy transition.

(QNA)

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