Background
It is part of Qatar’s plans to diversify its economy away from oil and gas, and will help the Country reach its 2030 goal for renewable energy to represent 20% of the power generation.
It will also reduce CO2 emissions in Qatar by about 26 million tons and represent approximately 10% of the Country’s electricity demand.
The project will have a total capacity of 800MW by 2022. Located at Al-Kharsaah, which is approximately 80km west of the capital city of Doha, the solar plant will be responsible for providing sustainable, clean and affordable energy to different industries and private individuals.
The solar plan is procured on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis for 25 years. The competitive power generation prices from solar are expected to save natural gas used in traditional power generation and reduce carbon emissions.
Marubeni and Total are shareholders alongside the state-owned Siraj Energy, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Qatar Electricity & Water Company.
Operis role
At the bid stage, Operis acted as model auditor for the Marubeni-Total consortium. The audit focused on the equity case.
At financial close, a separate team also audited the lender case model for the senior lenders, JBIC and Mizuho.
Robust and proven processes
The project was one of the first major infrastructure projects in the Middle East to reach financial close during the Covid-19 pandemic. Partway through the audit process, the world had to transition to remote working. Thanks to well-established model audit procedures, Operis continued to support its clients with their successful bid with minimal interruption.
Close collaboration
Al-Kharsaah continues Operis’s collaboration with Marubeni on Middle Eastern solar projects, having also closed Amin solar PV in Oman and Sweihan solar PV in Abu Dhabi in recent years. Operis is also supporting Marubeni on Rabigh solar PV, which is due to reach financial close in 2021.
