Qatar Readies $20 Billion Investment in Solar Power

Recent news on the topic of green energy sources and harvesting them informs us that the sovereign Arab state of Qatar is planning to significantly cut down on its greenhouse gas emissions with the help of solar power.

Thus, Qatar officials have explained that the state is to invest a whopping $20 billion (roughly €15.4 billion) on developing a solar power plant which might be up and running as early as the year 2018.

It is their hope that, by the year 2018, 16% of the total amount of electricity produced within its territory will be provided by solar energy alone.

Nuqudy explains that, as a result of its being the world's largest exporter of LNG (i.e. liquefied natural gas), Qatar also holds the world record in terms of per capita greenhouse emissions.

Therefore, its trying to harvest renewables makes considerable sense, at least from an environmental standpoint, if not from an economic one as well (oil and gas will not last forever, and replacements for them must soon be found).

According to the same source, Qatari official Fahad Bin Mohammed al-Attiya made a case of how, “We are working on a project to develop 1,800 megawatts of solar power. That will be 16 percent of our total electrical output.”

Furthermore, “All these measures have been applied now because solar prices are becoming reasonable and competitive.”

Needless to say, Qatar's choosing to invest in solar power and not other types of renewable energy sources also has a lot to do with the local weather: given the fact that this state is a rather sunny one, it need not come as a surprise that harvesting solar power would become a favorite.

“It [solar power] makes sense for us. (…) With the amount of solar hours we have it is economically feasible,” Fahad Bin Mohammed al-Attiya emphasized.

“Qatar is pursuing voluntarily a national initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as long as they are in line with sustainable development. To Qatar, climate change represents a double jeopardy,” he went on to add.