Hefei-based Sungrow Power Supply Ltd has won a contract to provide photovoltaic inverters for the third largest solar plant in the world, being built in Qatar. The 800 MWp (peak) Al Kharsaa project is on schedule to be fully operational before the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which the country is hosting.

A consortium of Marubeni and Total are developing the project, after winning the tender for what is Qatar's first utility-scale solar project. They have signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to supply electricity to offtaker Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa). 

Located 80 kilometres west of Doha, the project is being built over a 1,000 hectare area. Sungrow is providing its 1500V string inverter SG250HX, which converts the DC output from the panels to AC power to be fed into the grid.  The facility will provide around 10% of the peak electricity demand in Qatar.

As one of the best-selling PV inverter solutions, the SG250HX is expected to be deployed in more than 3GW of projects globally by the end of 2020.

Sungrow vice president James Wu said the company hopes to get involved in more projects in the Middle East. The company has already completed work on a 500 MW project in Oman and a 900 MW project in Dubai.

In September Sungrow announced that it has partnered with Shanghai Electric to supply its latest 1500V 6.25 MW turnkey solution to the 900 MW fifth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, an important element of Dubai's Clean Energy Strategy 2050.

The fifth phase of the solar park is expected to be online in the second quarter of 2021 and will power 270,000  homes. Based on the independent power producer (IPP) model, ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) are the project sponsors.