Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) today opened a photovoltaic station for energy storage and charging electric vehicles at Kahramaa Complex in Mesaimeer.
The opening was held in the presence of Essa bin Hilal Al Kuwari, Kahramaa President, Kazuo Sunaga, Ambassador of Japan to Qatar, Yoshiyaki Yokota, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Marubeni Power Company, and senior officials from Kahramaa and Marubeni Company, the strategic partner of the project.
This station is first of its kind in Qatar as it charges vehicles with electricity produced from solar energy via 216 photovoltaic panels fixed in a total area of 270 sq meter. The total power produced from these panels is 72 KW at peak.
The station contains a unit that has two connections of Combo and CHAdeMO types, which are compatible with various types of vehicles to allow two cars to be charged at a time with fast charging of 15–20 minutes for a car. The maximum charging capacity is 100 KW. The station also contains a power storage unit in a battery with a capacity of 170 KW/h. The charging cord of 100 KW is enough to charge 3 cars.
The station can export the surplus energy to the grid after charging the battery. It can also provide electricity from the grid to charge cars in case of a power outage from solar panels or the battery via a key transformer to control the electricity.
“This project comes within the efforts of Kahramaa, represented by the National Program for Conservation and Energy Efficiency Tarsheed, in cooperation with Japanese Company Marubeni. The aim of this station is to reduce the harmful carbon emissions by encouraging the usage of the solar energy as well as disseminating the use of electric cars in Qatar via providing a unique infrastructure for electric charging stations to achieve sustainability in line with QNV2030,” Essa Bin Hilal Al Kuwari said.
“Marubeni is one of the leading Japanese trading and investment houses established in 1858.
We are committed to social and economic development and safeguarding the global environment. As one of the leading IPP developers, we have announced a new corporate strategy confirming to double the ratio of power generated by renewable energy sources in our net power supply by 2023 to be a partner always providing optimal power and energy solutions to meet and satisfy stakeholders’ and society’s expectations and needs,” Yoshiyaki Yokota said.
Tarsheed aims to raise the share of electric cars to 10% of the car’s sale in Qatar by 2022.
Compared to traditional cars, electric cars are much more energy efficient. The electric cars run 520km while the conventional car runs only 322km with the same amount of natural gas. It needs 17 KW/h of electricity to run 100km, which costs QR5.44, while conventional car consumes 12-litre fuel for the same distance, which will cost an average of QR24.
The electric cars are also environment-friendly because they don’t produce any harmful carbon emissions while driving, while the conventional cars produce 6.88 Million Tons of carbon emissions average for each 24.000 kilometers annually.