The Al Kharsaah plant is the first large scale photovoltaic plant in Qatar with 800MWp installed solar capacity
The plant was constructed on a 1,000-hectare terrain, and integrates two million high-efficiency bifacial modules mounted on single-axis trackers. These panels, equipped with photovoltaic cells on the front and back, capture the sun's direct rays on one side, and the rays reflected on the ground on the other side, optimising electricity production.
Al Kharsaah can supply 10% of the country's peak power consumption, cutting 26 million tons of CO2 emissions over its lifetime.
“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”, said Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and chief executive officer of TotalEnergies. “This is another milestone in our long-standing and trustful relationship with QatarEnergy, also bringing us closer to our goal of 35GW of production capacity by 2025.”
The power plant has been developed and is operated by Siraj 1, which is jointly owned 40% by the consortium formed by TotalEnergies (49%), Marubeni (51%) and 60% by QatarEnergy Renewable Solutions. The project includes a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement between Siraj 1 and the power grid operator Kahramaa.
The inauguration of the Al Kharsaah plant follows the recent selection of TotalEnergies as QatarEnergy's first international partner for the North Field East (NFE) and North Field South (NFS) liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects. Participation in these projects will enable TotalEnergies to add 3.5 Mt/year of production to its global LNG portfolio by 2028, in line with the Company's goal of increasing the share of natural gas in its sales mix to 50% by 2030.
The inauguration also follows QatarEnergy's recent announcement of a new solarisation project for the Ras Laffan and Mesaieed industrial cities, with the support of TotalEnergies. With 900MWp of installed capacity, this project will be another major milestone in QatarEnergy's strategy to reduce the carbon footprint of its facilities by 2030 and to develop 5GW of renewable power generation capacity by 2035.
TotalEnergies and renewables electricity
As part of its ambition to get to net zero by 2050, TotalEnergies is building a portfolio of activities in renewables and electricity. At the end of June 2022, TotalEnergies' gross renewable electricity generation installed capacity is close to 12GW. TotalEnergies will continue to expand this business to reach 35GW of gross production capacity from renewable sources and storage by 2025, and then 100GW by 2030 with the objective of being among the world's top 5 producers of electricity from wind and solar energy.
