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State-owned petroleum firm QatarEnergy has signed an agreement with South Korea’s Samsung C&T to build a 2,000MW solar power plant in Dukhan, about 80 kilometres west of Doha.

The plant will double Qatar’s solar generation capacity, supplying up to 30% of Qatar’s total peak electricity demand once complete. It will use a solar tracker system and inverters, capable of operating in high temperatures, to maximise efficiency.

The project will be delivered in two phases and is expected to be fully operational by mid-2029.

The first phase of the Dukhan solar plant will deliver 1,000MW of power to the Kahramaa grid by the end of 2028. 

The agreement was signed by Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, minister of state for energy affairs and QatarEnergy CEO, and Sechul Oh, president and CEO of Samsung C&T.

Senior officials from Kahramaa and executives from both companies also attended the ceremony.

Under QatarEnergy’s Sustainability Strategy, the country plans to generate more than 4,000MW of renewable energy by 2030.

Qatar’s first utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) facility, the 800MW Al-Kharsaah solar independent power producer project, has been operational since 2022.

In August 2022, Samsung C&T won contracts for two other solar PV plants with a total combined capacity of 875MW.

One of the solar plants, which has a capacity of 458MW, is located in Ras Laffan. The other plant is located in Mesaieed and will have a capacity of 417MW.

Construction work on both projects was completed earlier this year.