The team from Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute at Al Kharsaah photovoltaic plant.
Doha: Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, is playing an integral role in conducting key research in helping the country harness the power of the sun, which is in abundance all year round.
In January, Qatar announced its ambitious plans to develop the Al Kharsaah photovoltaic plant, a solar energy site that is the first step towards the country’s long-term objective to produce 20 percent of its electricity through solar energy by 2030.
QEERI is working alongside the winning bidders – France’s Total and Japan’s Marubeni – and Kahramaa to provide key data and measurability to ensure optimisation in developing the solar plant as part of the Siraj project.
Dr Antonio P. Sanfilippo, Dr. Veronica Bermudez and Dr. Cedric Andre Broussillou are the scientists at the helm of QEERI’s involvement in the country’s biggest solar project yet. Once fully operational, the 1000 hectares (10km²) plant, estimated at costing QR1.7bn, is expected to produce 800 megawatts, accounting for a tenth of the country’s current peak energy demand. The three scientists and their teams at QEERI’s Energy Center have been involved in the project from the outset to ensure the provision of solar measurement data, which is one of the core functions of QEERI’s energy management programme.
“We have very specialized equipment that records the various components of solar radiation in real-time, and we have 14 solar monitoring stations across Qatar, including one at the Al Kharsaah site,” said Dr Sanfilippo.
“One key aspect of QEERI’s involvement in this project is providing precise solar resource data to reduce the risk of error when calculating the bankability - i.e. how much the solar plant will be able to produce based on the amount of solar power that can be harnessed. In doing so, we provided bidders to Kahramaa’s tender with four years of data from the physical solar stations as well as with data derived from the QEERI satellite receiver.”
In addition to the data which assisted bidders to assess the bankability of their offers, QEERI has also developed a solar forecasting service and a solar atlas. The ability to forecast solar radiation minutes, hours, and days ahead is crucial to optimizing solar energy integration by ensuring grid stability and efficient use of diverse energy resources, and regulating energy markets.
