Total, a producer of market fuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity, has entered into agreements for the development of the Al Kharsaah Solar PV IPP Project, an 800 MW 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 a 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 commitment to developing renewable energy. Al Kharsaah, Total’s largest solar project to date, will contribute to our ambition to deploy 25 GW of renewables by 2025,” says Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of Total. “This project further strengthens our long-term partnership with Qatar in oil, natural gas, refining and petrochemicals and expands it to include renewable energy.”
Al Kharsaah will provide energy to industries, services and individuals through the Qatari grid starting in 2021 with an initial 350 MW capacity before reaching its full capacity in 2022. 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 Int. and Marubeni, 40%, alongside Siraj Energy, 60%. The project benefits from a 25-year power purchase agreement to supply electricity to Kahramaa.
Photo: A Total solar project
