New mega-factory to double solar energy production by 2030

The future solar power plant is expected to produce 2,000 megawatts by 2030, which will bring the share of solar in its energy mix to 30%.

One of the world’s largest producers of natural gas is doubling down on solar power. On Sunday, Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi announced the start of construction of a new solar power plant to double its renewable energy production capacity by 2030.

This future large-scale solar farm “will produce 2,000 megawatts, twice as much as Qatar’s solar energy production capacity under current projects,” said the Minister of Energy, who is also CEO of the public hydrocarbons giant Qatarenergy, during a press conference in Doha.

It will be built in the Dukhan region, some 80 kilometers west of Doha, the minister said. The Gulf emirate inaugurated its first large-scale solar farm in Al Kharsaah, west of the capital, in October 2022, in partnership with French giant Totalenergies. In August of the same year, the emirate announced another solar project with two power plants in Ras Laffan, in the north of the country.

With all its projects, including Dukhan, Qatar will produce “4,000 megawatts of clean energy by 2030,” Saadi Al-Kaabi said. This “will represent 30% of the total energy production of the State of Qatar,” with an annual reduction of “4.7 million tons of CO2 emissions,” he said.

To become the world’s largest fertilizer producer

The energy minister also announced plans to more than double Qatar’s urea production, making the country the world’s largest fertilizer producer by the end of the decade.

Qatar will “maximize the production of chemical fertilizers” thanks to “a complex of global standards” which should increase “our production capacity from 6 million tons per year, to more than 12.4 million tons per year”, he stressed.

Qatar is one of the world’s leading producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), alongside the United States, Australia and Russia. Over the past year, the Gulf emirate has concluded a series of long-term LNG deals with, among others, France’s Totalenergies, Britain’s Shell, India’s Petronet, China’s Sinopec and Italy’s Eni.