Qatar Solar Energy Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Qatar Solar Energy market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 15.5% during the forecast period. The COVID-19 impact on the market was not recordable as the power generation mix in the country has major share of fossil fuels and the trivial solar energy based power generation (around 5MW) remained untouched. The solar energy market in the country is exclusively propelled by two factors, the energy transition goals of the country to increase the share of renewables in the power generation which is currently very low, and the abundance of solar irradiation in the country. However, the market is impeded by competition from other renewable options, mainly the prospects of green hydrogen and bioenergy, which has more reliability than solar energy in the country.

Key Highlights

• The solar photovoltaic systems (PV) is expected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period, due to low power production cost.
• The biggest opportunity for the solar energy market in the country is the alarmingly high fossil-fuels based power generation share, which has a number of severe consequences for the country, like the high carbon-emissions rate, and the reduction in hydrocarbon reserves which are more required in export sector. Qatar's economy is largely driven by its natural gas exports, which gets affected negatively by the consumption of gas in power sector.
• The favourable government policies to promote renewable power generation can lead to a robust growth of the market.

Key Market Trends

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Expected to Dominate the Market

• The solar photovoltaic(PV) systems have more prospects for the renewables penetration in the power production of the country, due to the ease of installation, particularly in large-scale projects.
• The installed capacity of solar power generation in Qatar was recorded as 5.1MW, as of 2020, which is far from the required targets to have a considerable share of renewables in the energy mix. Thus umpteen solar PV projects are lined up to boost the capacity in the nation.
• In January 2022, the power and water supply company Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation declared the plans to get the Al-Kharsaah solar PV project to get integrated in the nation's grid very soon, after completing the necessary studies for the operations. The project is currently very near to its completion , the task which is carried out by Siraj Energy and a consortium of Total Solar International and Marubeni.
• In October 2021, Siraj Energy (a JV between Qatar Energy (51%) and QEWC (49%)) signed two Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with Qatar Foundation and WOQOD for the deployment of photovoltaic (PV) systems in spaces like hospitals, and WOQOD stations to achieve energy efficiency. The project is expected to get completed in the second quarter of 2022.
• Owing to such developments, the solar PV segment is predicted to have the highest share in the near future.

Technological Innovations Expected to Drive the Market

• The various milestones in the technological innovations associated with Qatar's solar energy industry are likely to accelerate the market in the near future.
• The renewables-based power generation in the country was around 43MW, as of 2020, which is almost negligible as compared to the fossil fuels penetration (13099MW). The share of solar technology in renewable power generation was around 12%. The Qatar government has set the targets to increase this share, and thus many technological endeavours are in progress to eliminate the challenges associated with the technology.
• Currently, strenuous efforts have been put in for developing solar capacity in the country through research centers, utilities, universities, and pilot projects, and a number of institutions including Kahramaa, Qatar Foundation, QNFSP and QSTP are actively working on this front.
• In 2021, Qatar Foundation announced the launch of the Gulf region’s first Energy Monitoring Centre (EMC) to manage the smart grid in the city and to monitor the solar power generation at all the sites in the country.
• In 2021, Qatar Foundation completed the Solar Smart Grid Project which installed solar PV systems at various facilities in the Qatar Foundation Campus. The total combined capacity of the project was 1.68MW.
• All these developments are expected to improve the solar sector of the country at the technology front, and lead to the development of the solar industry.

Competitive Landscape

The solar energy market in Qatar is moderately consolidated. Some of the key players in this market include Qatar Solar Technologies, Marubeni Corp, Total Energies SA, Qatar Solar Energy, and Nebras Power QSC.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support