Although Qatar is blessed with abundant supplies of natural gas and to a large extent, oil, the country is focusing on moving slowly towards renewable sources of energy.

As part of the strategy, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has decided to call a global tender, before the end of 2018, for the construction of Qatar’s first large-scale solar Photovoltaic (PV) power plant, reported Gulf Times.

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Kahramaa President Eng Essa Hilal Al Kuwari said they had attracted interest from a wide range of companies and consortiums from around the world. Of them, he said 16 companies had been prequalified.

The 700 megawatt (MW) solar Photovoltaic power plant, which is expected to cost around QR2bn to set up, will be spread over an area of 10 square kilometres in Doha west, near Al Kharsaah, reported The Peninsula.

“In the first stage, 350MW electricity will be connected to the grid by 2020. It will help us achieve the objective of Qatar National Development Strategy (QNDS) 2018–2022,” said Al Kuwari.

The solar plant comes at a time when the country is trying to diversify its power generation resources and increase renewable energy percentage in Qatar’s energy mix.

“Since our country has an abundance of solar energy and from monitoring the recent developments in solar panel manufacturing along with reduction in costs, and from studying the amount of natural gas that can potentially be saved, Kahramaa has decided to go forward with a utility-scale solar power plant,” Al Kuwari was quoted as saying by The Peninsula.

The project will be on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis to encourage private investments in large-scale projects.

The project is structured as a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model for 25 years, following which the ownership will be transferred to Kahramaa. Siraj Energy will participate in the project as a Strategic National Investor, reported Qatar Tribune.

The project is expected to generate power at competitive rates and save natural gas used in traditional power generation, reducing carbon emissions and preserving the environment.