Large factory in Qatar wants to double solar capacity by 2030: minister
A major new solar power plant planned in Qatar will double the Gulf emirate’s previously expected renewable energy capacity by 2030, Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi announced on Sunday.
The photovoltaic farm, which will be built in the Dukhan area, about 80 kilometers west of the capital Doha, will increase the gas-rich state’s solar production capacity to four gigawatts by the end of the decade, Kaabi said.
The plant “which will be located in the Dukhan area will produce 2,000 megawatts, which is twice the capacity of Qatar’s solar energy production of current projects,” said the minister, who is also CEO of the state-owned company QatarEnergy.
In October 2022, Qatar opened its first large-scale solar park in al-Kharsaah, west of Doha. The emirate announced another solar energy project in August of the same year with two factories in Ras Laffan in the north.
The combined projects, including in Dukhan, would see Qatar achieve “4,000 megawatts of clean energy by 2030,” Kaabi said.
This will account for “30 percent of the total energy production of the State of Qatar” with an annual reduction of “4.7 million tons of CO2 emissions,” he added.
Kaabi said the existing projects should produce 1.7 gigawatts of energy “in the first quarter of next year, or early next year.”
The energy minister also announced plans to more than double Qatar’s urea production, making the country the world’s largest producer of fertilizer by the end of the decade.
He said Qatar would “maximize production of chemical fertilizers” through “a complex with global standards” that would “increase our production capacity from 6 million tons per year to more than 12.4 million tons per year.”
Qatar is one of the largest producers of liquefied natural gas in the world, alongside the United States, Australia and Russia. Natural gas is an important ingredient in the production of urea.
In February, Qatar announced plans to expand production at its North Field project and said it would boost capacity to 142 million tonnes per year before 2030.
Over the past year, Qatar has signed a series of long-term LNG deals with companies including France’s Total, Britain’s Shell, India’s Petronet, China’s Sinopec and Italy’s Eni.
csp/dcp
