HBKU’s QEERI continues supporting the newly operational Al Kharsaah Solar Plant

HBKU’s QEERI continues supporting the newly operational Al Kharsaah Solar Plant

Doha – Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), is playing a pivotal role in supporting the operations of the 800MWp Al Kharsaah Solar Power Plant, initially inaugurated on October 18.

Having provided services since the plant’s development and construction phases, QEERI’s exceptional data and solar forecasting resources will continue benefiting its operations. QEERI’s best-in-class capabilities enable the provision of solar irradiation and other meteorological data that would otherwise not be easily performed on a large utility-scale plant.

The pioneering Al Kharsaah is the first large-scale photovoltaic (PV) plant in Qatar. Built, owned, and operated by the Siraj-1 consortium, the plant includes more than 1,800,000 solar panels and the latest technologies, including bifacial PV modules mounted on sun trackers. It has the capacity to cover around 10% of the country’s peak electricity demand and avoid 26 million metric tons of CO2.

QEERI’s Energy Center has contributed its exceptional data and solar forecasting resources to Siraj-1 since May 2019. QEERI installed a high precision solar monitoring and weather station in Al Kharsaah to collect data relevant to the plant’s development and operation. The data was used by the Engineering, Procurement and Construction contractor. It also provides the