Total S.A. (Paris, France; www.total.com) as entered into agreements for the development of the Al Kharsaah Solar PV IPP Project, a 800 megawatt-peak (MWp) solar plant that will be located 80 km west of Doha, Qatar. The project was awarded to a consortium of Total (49%) and Marubeni (51%) as the result of the country’s first solar tender.
“We are proud to pioneer the development of the first large-scale solar power plant in Qatar and support the country’s assertive commitment to developing renewable energy. Together with our partners, we will bring the best of our expertise and technical know-how to deliver one of the most competitive projects in the world”, says Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of Total. “Al Kharsaah, Total’s largest solar project to date, will contribute to our ambition to deploy 25 GW of renewables by 2025. This project further strengthens our long-term partnership with Qatar in oil, natural gas, refining and petrochemicals and expands it to include renewable energy. It is a very clear symbol of the strategy of Total to become a global energy company.”
Qatar’s first large-scale solar power plant, Al Kharsaah will provide sustainable, affordable and clean energy to industries, services and individuals through the Qatari grid starting from 2021 with an initial 350-MWp capacity before reaching its full capacity in 2022. It will represent around 10% of electricity peak demand of the country and will reduce the CO2 emissions of Qatar by 26 million tons during the life of the project. The solar plant will be built on over 1000 hectares of land and equipped with 2 million bifacial solar modules with trackers, allowing substantial power gains and leveraging the advantage of the exceptional sunlight exposure in the region. It will represent an investment of around $500 million.
The project will be developed and operated by Siraj 1 SPV, jointly owned by the Consortium of Total Solar International and Marubeni (40%), alongside Siraj Energy (60%), a Joint Venture between Qatar Petroleum (40%) and QEWC (Qatar Electricity & Water Company, 60%). The project benefits from a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to supply electricity to the offtaker Kahramaa.