The webinar was held by EQ Magazine Pro on 29th June 2022, powered by Longi Solar on Kuwait PV InvesTech. In this webinar, Mr. Samer Zawaydeh – Carbon Markets National Expert Jordan expressed his views with facts and figures and moderated the whole panel discussion lithely.
Various energy crises, financial crises, and many more obstacles have been discussed with absolute solutions from the panellist’s outlook.
Ms. Lynn Li Yan, Sales Director- ME – Longi Solar – Delivered a brief about Longi Solar, which is founded in the year 2000 as a young company, but started as a very impressive production capacity in solar wafer, which is at the upstream of the solar business. Longi wafer capacity has reached around 105-gigawatts per year, and the wafer shipments reached around 70-gigawatts in 2021. Sticking with the upstream, the company started to go downstream in the year 2015. So, currently Longi solar is also one of the biggest PV module producers globally. Longi impressed their customer not only with its capacity but also with its technology because the organization aims to be one of the advanced technical solar companies. Longi is the first solar company that has achieved more than 30-gigawatts within a year and co-operate with the main IPPS globally, this year Longi has already co-operated with some of the leading developers in the Middle East and has successfully installed an 800-megawatt project in Qatar and hopefully part of that electricity generated from that solar plants.
Mr. Ahmed M. Abdel-Rahman, Director – Clenergy MENA, Kuwait Shared a brief about Clenergy, an EPC firm established in 2013 with having presence in Kuwait, Cairo, Egypt, Toronto, and Canada. The firm is considerably committed to, being the solution provider for clean energy, and is pre-qualified by the Government, in Kuwait and Egypt to implement solar PV projects. Speaking about the services of Clenergy Mr. Ahmed asserted that, we provide the full stream of services starting from planning to engineering and design up to O&M, and similarly on the demand of the site management, we provide energy management, energy optimization, and other solutions that would help you to reduce the energy consumption and the carbon footprints. In further discussion, Mr. Ahmed revealed the challenges in EPC projects, specifically in Kuwait, so he discussed some of the major challenges which can hamper the growth of the firm. First and foremost is, implementing the design. Secondly, the supply chain challenges. The third most challenge is the shortage of raw material. Fourth one is the global freight disruption, and identifying the requirements is the fifth most obstacles, that every EPC firm faces most of the time.
Mr. Karthick Loganathan, Project Finance – MENA Renewable Energy – Alternative Energy Projects Co. Delivered a brief background of AEPCo, a leading EPC company and project developer in the Middle East region, founded in 2016 as the energy division of the conglomerate KIPCO. The company has completed 20 projects in both EPC and development and is operating across 4 countries. Initially, AEPCo entered the Middle East market as a pure solar EPC player specialized in the C&l segment. After gaining a solid position as an EPC company, AEPCo is leveraging its experience and local market expertise by repositioning itself as an ambitious project developer and Independent Power Producer ‘IPP’. In the later conversation, Mr. Karthick discussed the Kuwait Solar PV, and the financing challenges as well as the sources of finances. The major financing challenges according to Mr. Karthick are the bankability of the project, the second one is credit worthiness of the borrower, and the third drawback is the inadequacy in providing the pledge or mortgage. Last but not the least, the EPC tie-up is also considered to be a major hurdle.
Dr. Hidab M Z Hamwi , Research Scientist – Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research Demonstrated the history and the obligations of the KISR. It’s been established as a part of the agreement with Arabian Oil Company in 1967, then in 1973, it became a Government agency. In 1981 Amiri Decree No. 28 stressed that KISR is an independent public institute, the mission was to apply scientific research related to national industry, energy, natural resources, and food resources, and to provide consultation to the Government, including the scientific research policy for the state of Kuwait. KISR is obliged to strengthen relationships and conduct joint research activities with national and international institutions. The firm also guides national economic diversification through funded research, which is intended to encourage socio-economic development. The institute is also dedicated to accelerating the advancements in the GCC and the Middle East. Exceeding the conversation, Dr. Hidab shared the KISR’s affiliations with various partners such as Kuwait University, the Ministry of Oil, the Ministry of Public Workers, and also the Ministry of Education. KISR’s main objective of the Renewable Energy Program is to Enable Kuwait to meet future demand through diversification of energy resources, and exploiting renewable energy technologies while preserving the quality of the environment. However, Kuwait is aiming for 8-10 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030 whereas Shageya can achieve more than 2.5 GW of the required renewable energy capacity.
Mr. Oday Abed, O&M Advisor Engineer – AEPCO – ME Region Shared a brief about Alternative Energy Projects (AEPCO), which is based in Kuwait and working in projects development and engineering, and also expressed his views on the challenges that most developers face in Kuwait. The first challenge is specifically for the Private sector, so looking at the problem Mr. Oday suggested that working on the development of utility-scale projects could be the best option for Kuwait. The second obstacle is regarding prices, which is affecting the financial modules adversely. The third challenging factor according to Mr. Oday is the Soiling factor, which is a trending topic in the world and the Middle East. So, many Institutes and organizations are working on Module’s cleaning and soiling effects. Forth most challenge is regarding storage and regional connections, as the regional connection is very important for each country, that is looking to start with utility-scale projects.
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