Opportunities for Reduced Scale Solar Solution in Qatar

This presentation by QPM assesses the state of Qatar’s solar cooling market and provides an analysis of the opportunities and challenges stemming from the climatic conditions, technological capabilities and financial sources. The presentation also highlights several case studies of applying solar thermal cooling in different countries. This analysis is done with the intention to support installation of an energy-efficient solar thermal cooling system for an outdoor park in Qatar.

There are abundant solar resources available in Qatar, but the climate in the country is exposed to the high humidity and winds that adversely affect full capacity generation of the solar installations and remain as challenges. The current cooling market is dominated by conventional vapor compression (VC) technologies. Solar adsorption and absorption chilling devices are being introduced as environmentally-friendly alternatives to these conventional systems. The solar adsorption and absorption technologies demonstrate significant advantages when it comes to durability, sustainability, heat recovery features and eco-friendliness, but still face challenges due to overheating and design.

The presentation further outlines several cases of applying solar thermal chillers for various commercial and public applications and introduces the design concept of outdoor parks with solar chilling.