QatarEnergy said its newly formed QatarEnergy Renewable Solutions awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract to Samsung C&T to build two solar PV plants with capacity to generate 875 MW of electricity, which will be partly used in its LNG expansion.
One of the projects will have 417 MW capacity in Masaieed and the other will have 458 MW in Ras Laffan, with electricity production expected to start by the end of 2024, QatarEnergy said in an Aug. 23 statement.
Qatar plans to have 5 GW of solar generated power by 2035. The 2.3 billion riyals ($632 million) project is the first for QatarEnergy Renewable Solutions, which will handle all of Qatar’s renewables investments.
This is the second utility-scale solar project in Qatar. Along with its Al Kharsaa solar PV plant under construction, the two new power plants will increase Qatar’s renewable energy generation capacity to 1.675 GW by 2024. The output of both plants will help QatarEnergy reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from its facilities in both cities, including its massive LNG expansion projects in North Field East and North Field South, the company said.
LNG expansion
Q atar’s North Field expansion involves four trains to boost LNG production to 126 million mt/year by 2027 from 77 million mt/year currently.
TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Eni have recently been selected to join QatarEnergy in the project.
The first phase of the North Field expansion will cost $28.75 billion, making it one of the largest energy projects anywhere. The field, which Qatar shares with Iran, is the world’s largest offshore gas reserves.
Qatar’s energy minister Saad al-Kaabi is continuing to meet with potential LNG buyers with prices still on the rise.
The JKM spot LNG price for delivery into northeast Asia hit a record $84.76/MMBtu in March and was last assessed at $59.05/MMBtu on Aug. 23, according to Platts assessments from S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Kaabi met with Pakistan’s Musadik Masood Malik, minister of state for petroleum, in Doha on Aug. 23, QatarEnergy said in a separate statement.
