A joint venture of Qatar Electricity & Water Company (QEWC) and Qatar Petroleum (QP) is aiming to issue tenders for the contract to build two solar power schemes generating a total 200MW before the end of 2016.

Speaking at MEED’s Qatar Projects conference in Doha on 16 March, Abdulsattar Rashid, business development director, QEWC, said that the QEWC/QP joint venture was undertaking the prequalification process for appointing a consultant for the 200MW project, and is planning to complete a technical study within two months.

“We hope to tender the EPC [engineering, procurement and construction] contract this year,” Rashid told the conference. “The 200MW will be located over two different locations, each 13 kilometres long.”

The project forms part of Qatar’s aim for solar to contribute 2 per cent of its power generation capacity by 2020.

QEWC and QP signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the joint venture in December. QEWC will have a 60 per cent share in the $500m initiative, with QP to hold the remaining 40 per cent.