Solar Panels
By Must_try_harder •
Is there a reason why solar power via solar panels is not used here in Qatar when so much sun light is to be had? Once fitted it's free (ish). The amount of power used to cool buildings must be phenomenal. Any thoughts?
Solar is expensive to install at about $5000 (QAR18000) per KW of installed capacity. A 1KW panel system will produce about 2000KWH (Kilowatt hours == units) of power.
As power costs about QAR 0.06 / unit it just isn't an economic proposition. Anyway a lot of the people who have money for this sort of thing are locals who get free utility bills. In their case there is no point spending money on renewables if they will still pay zero each month.
Its the same reason why there is such enormous waste of power and water over here. Why spend money replacing the old aircon or building a well engineered property with good thermal insulation? If you are a local it doesn't reduce your bills and if you are renting to a foreigner they can pick up the energy bills.
In fact the system encourages waste.
Andy
A system which generates 20 kW would cost around 250 000 Riyals at current prices. This looks too much for most of the greedy landlords here. And: the energy suppliers have no interest at all to promote energy which they don't supply.
The same could be said for the whole Middle East. Guess they think the oil will never run out :O(
Oil is also 'free' here, and nobody cares for CO2 emissions. That's why.