Mizuho Bank, Ltd, President & CEO: Koji Fujiwara has arranged a project finance deal to build, maintain, and operate the Al Kharsaa Solar PV Power Project, the largest solar power project in Qatar, which by Mizuho Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
For this project, Siraj Energy1, Marubeni Corporation, and Total Solar International formed a Special Purpose Company (SPC), Siraj1, which has a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) for the energy produced via this plant. This is Qatar’s biggest renewable energy project to date with a capacity of 800MWp, and is one of the largest projects in the world to utilize bifacial solar modules, thereby enabling the effective use of resources.
Qatar currently relies primarily on gas and other fossil fuel power generation for the majority of its electricity demand, but has positioned utilizing renewable energy to diversify its electric power supply as a key part of achieving sustainable economic growth as outlined in the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Siraj Energy is the main investor in this project, and is jointly owned by Qatar Electricity & Water Company Q.P.S.C. and Qatar Petroleum.
In January, Total entered into agreements for the development of the Al Kharsaah Solar PV IPP Project, a 800 megawatt-peak (MWp) solar plant that will be located 80 kilometers west of Doha, Qatar. The project was awarded to a consortium of Total (49%) and Marubeni (51%) as the result of the country’s first solar tender.
Qatar’s first large-scale solar power plant, Al Kharsaah will provide sustainable, affordable and clean energy to industries, services and individuals through the Qatari grid starting from 2021 with an initial 350 MWp capacity before reaching its full capacity in 2022.
