Country's potential for sustainable energy 'unlimited'

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

Qatar has enormous technical potential for sustainable energy, a senior official of Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) told Solar Qatar Summit yesterday.

Representing Kahramaa president Essa bin Hilal al-Kuwari, technical affairs director Ahmed Nasser al-Nasser said the corporation has identified four different sources of solar energy and each of them will be effectively utilised to meet the growing power requirements of the country in the future.
The sources are power from photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar power, concentrating high-temperature heat from industries and solar thermal low-temperature heat from buildings, he said.

Under its ambitious Qatar National Food Security Programme (QNFSP), the country aims to reduce its reliance on food imports through self-sufficiency. “To realise this goal, the country will put to good use a variety of clean energy sources and a carbon reduction programme, which will enable sustainable and environment-friendly operations in agriculture,” he said.

The official said the solar park that Qatar is planning to build by utilising the latest advances in PV and solar thermal (ST) applications, will be successful in producing enough energy for its requirements in water desalination.

The solar energy programme that Qatar proposes to put in place, he said, would have in its first phase the pilot project in Duhail with a capacity of 5-10MW. The second phase would be based on the results of the first phase and the possibility of engaging the private sector would be studied elaborately, said al-Nasser. “Through this, we aim to optimise the utilisation of redundant flat surfaces in the infrastructure, such as the roofs of grid stations and water reservoirs, to generate a capacity of up to 200MW by 2020 from solar sources.”

As part of its mission to make the 2022 FIFA World Cup a resounding success, Kahramaa is supporting Green Qatar 2022 of the Supreme Commitee in line with the goals and objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030. “It would be achieved by increasing the generation of excess renewable energies to contribute to a carbon-neutral FIFA 2022 event.”

The speaker recalled some of the MoUs that Kahramaa has signed in recent years with stakeholders to develop sufficient solar energy channels in Qatar. These include pacts with QSTP for renewable resources, QSTec for further co-operation in renewable energy, QEERI for co-operation and carrying out concentrating solar power projects and reverse osmosis technologies, and Iberdrola Utility for co-operation in exchanging expertise and carrying out pilot projects.

Source: Gulf Times

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