Qatar’s efforts to go green have taken an active turn with the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) looking to set up 200-500 charging points for electric cars across the country by 2022.

The charging points will be at shopping malls, residential areas, stadiums, parks and government offices,” said engineer Mohamed Khalid al-Sharshani, head of the technical section at the National Programme for Conservation and Energy Efficiency (Tarsheed).

Addressing Qatar TV, the offi cial explained that Kahramaa aims to produce 700MW from solar panels by 2022. The electric charging stations will be established across Qatar in co-operation with various stakeholders including the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) and the Ministry of Transport and Communication (MoTC).

Tarsheed, is also looking to raise the share of electric cars to 10% of the total cars sold in Qatar by 2022. Kahramaa had earlier announced that it has plans to achieve a signifi cant goal of making 3-5% of the total car population in the country green by 2022.

Last year, Kahramaa, represented by Tarsheed, launched Tarsheed Photovoltaic Station for Energy Storage and Charging Electric Vehicles at the Corporation’s Mesaimeer ComOne of the photovoltaic stations for energy storage and charging electric vehicles.

The station functions as a charging point for vehicles with electricity produced from solar energy via 216 photovoltaic panels that are divided into two areas with a total area of 270 sqm. The entire area is equal to the row for 24 cars’ spaces.

The total power produced from these panels is 72KW peak. The station contains a unit that has two connections of Combo and CHAdeMO types that are compatible with diff erent types of vehicles. The unit allows two cars to be charged at a time with a rapid charging level of 15-20 minutes.

The maximum charging capacity is 100kw. The station also contains a power storage unit in a battery with a capacity of 170kw/h. The charging cord of 100kw is enough to charge three cars. The surplus energy is exported to the grid after charging the battery.

Apart from the photovoltaic station at Mesaimeer, electric charging stations are functional at Qatar Scientific Club, Kahramaa Main Building, Kahramaa Awareness Park Building, Alfardan Towers, St Regis Doha and Marsa Malaz Kempinski at The Pearl-Qatar.

Source : Gulf Times

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