DOHA: As the Middle East and North African (Mena) countries set to emerge as a major renewable energy force, Qatar is getting ready to be a key contributor. A top Qatari official said the country would be one of the contributors to the GCC power grid interconnections that would export electricity to the neighbouring countries and even beyond.
Qatar is eyeing the export of electricity from the six countries in the Gulf co-operation Council regional group. The upgrade of the region’s power grid interconnections might accentuate the plans. The potential of the region’s renewable energy goes beyond to see the GCC connection to Egypt and then Europe, The Financial Times reported.
“I see the future where power generation could be anywhere and people just get their electricity from places simply because grids are being integrated”, the London newspaper quoted Fahad bin Mohammed Al Attiya, Chairman of Qatar National Food Security Programme (QNFSP) as saying.
An estimated 80 percent of Qatar’s total water desalination process would be soon powered by solar energy. The country’s proposed 1,800MW solar project is in the final stage. Once the project becomes operational, Qatar’s water needs would be mainly met through solar energy, Fahad told The Peninsula recently.
Qatar is in a final design stage of putting together the solar plant which will generate 1,800MW power from 2014 onwards and would potentially produce 80 percent of our water needs through harnessing solar power.
According to Ernst & Young’s Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices (CAI) Saudi Arabia and the UAE are expected to lead Middle East and North Africa region’s generation of renewable energy. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are the new entrants from the Mena to Ernst & Young’s CAI, which covers 40 countries across the globe on the attractiveness of their renewable energy markets, energy infrastructure and the suitability for individual technologies.
As new entrants to the index, they exemplify the growing clean energy potential of the Mena region, with policy-makers in the two countries already announcing ambitious renewable energy targets, it said.
Energy consumption in the Middle East has grown rapidly in the last five years. Between 2007 and 2011, the region‘s energy consumption grew 22 per cent. In the next five years, energy usage is not expected to slowdown, with double–digit growth rates forecast for the Middle East.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which has recently signed an MoU with Qatar to develop its renewable sources, noted the country’s Polysilicon production plant in Ras Laffan is capable of producing 8,000 metric tons of polysilicon per year. The country is in the making of generating 1000MW solar. The works of a biomass plant with an installed capacity of 40MW has already been completed, IRENA said.
The Peninsula
