Qatar’s main power plant to double solar capacity by 2030: minister

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A major new solar power plant is set to be built in Qatar by 2030, doubling the Gulf emirate’s previously forecast renewable energy capacity, Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi announced on Sunday.

The solar farm, to be built in the Dukhan area, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of the capital Doha, will boost the gas-rich country’s solar power production capacity to four gigawatts by the end of the decade, Kaabi said.

“The plant, which will be built in the Dukhan area, will produce 2,000 megawatts, which is twice the production capacity of Qatar’s current solar energy projects,” said the minister, who is also chairman of state-owned company QatarEnergy.

In October 2022, Qatar inaugurated its first large-scale solar farm in Al-Kharsaah, west of Doha. In August of the same year, the emirate announced another solar project with two plants in Ras Laffan in the north.

Thanks to coordinated projects, including the one in Dukhan, Qatar will achieve “4,000 megawatts of clean energy by 2030,” Kaabi said.

“This will account for 30 percent of Qatar’s total energy production” and reduce CO2 emissions by “4.7 million tons” annually, he added.

Kaabi said existing projects should generate 1.7 gigawatts of power “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. By the end of the decade, the country is set to become the world’s largest producer of the fertilizer.

He added that Qatar will “maximize its fertilizer production” through a “global standards-compliant complex” that will “increase our production capacity from 6 million tons per year to over 12.4 million tons per year.”

Qatar is one of the world’s largest producers of liquefied natural gas, along with the United States, Australia and Russia. Natural gas is a key ingredient in urea production.

In February, Qatar announced plans to increase production from its North Field project, saying its capacity would rise to 142 million tonnes per year by 2030.

Over the past year, Qatar has signed a number of long-term LNG supply agreements with, among others, France’s Total, Britain’s Shell, India’s Petronet, China’s Sinopec and Italy’s Eni.

csp/dcp