DOHA: Nebras Power said yesterday it will invest $1.35bn in Indonesia’s Paiton project for producing electricity. Chairman of Nebras Power Fahad bin Hamad Al Mohannadi (pictured), who is also General Manager and Managing Director of Qatar Electricity and Water (QEWC), told QNA that Nebras was currently pursuing investment opportunities in many projects outside of Qatar.
He said that the company has been studying those projects for nearly three years, adding that a decision will be made on them soon. One of those projects is Indonesia’s Paiton, noting that countries with high levels of growth are the ones being considered by Nebras. This is not the case with countries that are facing an economic slowdown, he added.
Al Mohannadi said countries with high growth levels are the ones likely to demand more electricity in the future. The best investment opportunities are available in GCC member countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Oman. Nebras is looking to pursue opportunities in those countries.
Other countries that have good opportunities, Al Mohannadi added, are South-East Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. A third region is the Arab Maghreb according to the General Manager of QEWC. He noted that QEWC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar Petroleum (QP) to produce electricity from solar energy in Qatar. This decision was taken because QP believes that producing electricity through solar energy will make more LNG quantities available for export.
He revealed that the two sides are working on establishing a new company, called Seraj Energy Company, in the first half of 2017 for producing electricity from solar energy. The company will produce electricity from renewable sources in general and solar in particular, due to the decline in the price of energy. The cost of producing electricity from solar energy was 12 cents 5-6 years ago, it has gone down today to less than 3 cents mainly due to the increase in production of solar panels.
Currently, investing in solar energy is very encouraging and expected the future of the field to be bright in the region and Qatar.
