Al Kharsaah solar power plant : Qatar starts up first large scale photovoltaic plant

French energy giant TotalEnergies and its partners QatarEnergy and Marubeni have commenced operations of the 800MW Al Kharsaah solar power plant in Qatar, which was inaugurated by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of Qatar.

The Al Kharsaah solar power project is now one of the largest solar power plants in the Middle East.

Located 80km west of the capital city Doha, the solar power plant in Qatar is connected to the national grid. It is the first large scale photovoltaic plant in Qatar.

Featuring two million high-efficiency bifacial modules mounted on single-axis trackers, the Al Kharsaah solar power plant covers a total area of a 1000-hectare terrain.

Patrick Pouyanné — TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO, commenting on the Al Kharsaah solar project, said: “After our recent entry in the giant LNG projects NFE and NFS alongside QatarEnergy, we are proud to announce today the start-up of the Al Kharsaah solar plant.

“This giant project, which contributed to the sustainability roadmap of Qatar, demonstrates once again TotalEnergies’ ability to support producing countries in their energy transition by combining natural gas production and solar energy to meet the growing demand for electricity.

“This is another milestone in our long-standing and trustful relationship with QatarEnergy, also bringing us closer to our goal of 35 GW of production capacity by 2025.”

Inauguration of the Al Kharsaah solar power plant in Qatar. Photo courtesy of QatarEnergy.

The Al Kharsaah solar power plant will be able to cover 10% of the peak power consumption in Qatar, apart from offsetting 26 million tons of CO2 emissions during its lifetime.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi — Qatar Minister of State for Energy Affairs and QatarEnergy President and CEO said: “The Al-Kharsaah plant is one of the country’s strategic initiatives to build projects that contribute to reducing gas and thermal emissions, thus achieving about a million-ton reduction in annual carbon dioxide emissions.”

Siraj 1 is the developer and operator of the Al Kharsaah solar power project. The company is 40% owned by a consortium of TotalEnergies (49%) and Marubeni (51%), while the remaining 60% is held by QatarEnergy Renewable Solutions.

The Al Kharsaah solar project will supply the generated solar energy to the power grid operator Kahramaa under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Recently, QatarEnergy made an announcement of a new solarization project for the Ras Laffan and Mesaieed industrial cities, in partnership with TotalEnergies.

With a 900MWp of installed capacity, the solar power project will contribute to the QatarEnergy’s target to develop 5GW of renewable power generation capacity by 2035.