DOHA: The Qatar Science and Technology Park's (QSTP) Solar Test facility is expected to be operational by the end of the year, according to an official from the country's pioneering firm, GreenGulf.
The company is now bringing leading entities from all over the world to discuss and see what would suit Qatar best in this field.
"We are working together with Chevron on a project for the QSTP Solar Test facility which will be inaugurated at the end of the year. The idea is really to test a variety of photovoltaic, solar and thermo technologies and to understand how they work under the Qatari climate, to be used for a variety of applications going forward, like power generation and solar cooling and many other applications," Omran Hamad Al Kuwari, GreenGulf CEO told reporters here recently.
Speaking about the costs of solar energy technologies. Al Kuwari said that in renewable energy in general, most of the costs are in the capital side which goes down in the long term.
"The question is how much they cost compared to the alternatives. That is the real challenge to understand. The cost in general and in solar specifically, have gone down dramatically for the last two years, especially in photovoltaic. So we will try to see and understand the cost on the ground with the type of technology that exist and try to understand what the costs are," he said.
"But the costs have been going down and the interest to solar generally have been going up. In comparison they are more attractive than ever."
Asked whether utilising solar energy alone might not be that cost effective, but a combination of other alternative energies would make sense, Al Kuwari said, "solar alone and in general any type of energy alone is not the best way of using resources. I see solar playing a potentially important role depending on which country you are. For example in Qatar it can be useful for the peak times in summer when the load is highest for ACs. So if you utilise it in a small way, then it could make sense, but it is not going to be the answer, it is going to be part of the larger answer. In Qatar, gas is always going to be the main player."
As for the percentage of solar energy contribution to the sources of energy mix that can be expected, Al Kuwari noted that for Qatar it was too early specify.
"Neighbouring countries have already put targets with UAE aiming at 7 percent the share of renewable energy production by the end of the decade and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are talking of similar targets."
He added that this was not the case with Qatar which is blessed with plenty of gas.
"Qatar's characteristics are different from other countries. The objectives now is to understand the cost, to understand technologies and find the right applications and targets will come latter," said Al Kuwari.
Though alternative energy like solar would make economic sense, he noted. "If you look at purely economic perspectives, if you utilise resources from the sun, you can potentially save your gas resources for more exports," he said.
"If you look at environmental perspective, there will be less emissions. It depends on different angles, but generally it means using all the resources that you have efficiently, whether it is gas, solar or wind. We are trying to tap into that in a practical way."
© The Peninsula 2011
