Kuwait to build first solar power station

Solar power panels.

DUBAI: Kuwait’s Public Authority for Applied Sciences and Training (PAAST) announced this week that it was beginning to design the country’s first-ever solar energy station.

According to the center, the $16.16 million endeavor is to be completed by the end of 2013 and is being developed in cooperation with the Kuwaiti firm Pan Arab Consulting Engineers (PACE), the Kuwaiti state news agency reported.

PACE will provide the initial design for the energy complex, which will situated in the PAAST campus in the Aradiya industrial area of Kuwait City, the report said.

The project is aimed at reinforcing the principles of clean energy and alternative power sources, PAAST said.

In a statement from PACE, the new solar power station “would look to utilize the roofs of several colleges and learning facilities to provide maximum exposure for the station’s solar cells, so as to allow them to absorb as much energy as possible, and convert it to electricity.”

Kuwait hopes to become the latest Gulf region country to enter the solar energy sector, following Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Although the growth of the technology has been slow, especially when compared to the likes of Germany and Spain, there has been a significant uptake in its use, pointing to a boom over the next decade, experts have said.

BM

Tags: Energy, Solar Power

Section: Going Green, Kuwait, Latest News