Project 1 - Team 2

Problem
The demand for electricity in Qatar has grown in recent years, causing the maximum
capacity for the power grid to grow from 941 mW in 1988 to 3,990 mW in 2008 and
up to 8600 mW in 2020 [1]. The current demand for power is projected to grow even
more than before. To be able to meet the increasing demand, Qatar has had to meet
this demand by having to rely on even more fossil fuels for their energy needs. While
fossil fuels seem to work for now because Qatar has huge natural gas and oil reserves
near its shores, those reserves will eventually run dry and the country will have to
find alternative resources to run the power grids. Some alternative resources that
the country could use for power production are wind turbines, solar panels, and
many more resources. However, these resources can be costly and inefficient,
making them impractical for widespread use. The current problem that is being
researched is about the potential drawbacks of using fossil fuels and why it can be
difficult to transition to renewable energy.

Purpose
The purpose for investigating this topic is to explain the positives and negatives of
using renewable energy and how they can be costly to implement for consumers.
Another reason for researching this topic is to explore different possibilities for
ways to implement renewable energy and how it will be difficult to transition from
fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Objectives
The objectives are to find different solutions to make the transition from fossil fuels
to renewable energy in Qatar, to explain how it will be challenging to shift from
fossil fuel power sources to renewable energy, and to explain the positive and
negative aspects of using renewable energy for energy needs. The way that the
purpose of this research will be achieved is to give information and to spread
awareness about different alternative energy sources to fossil fuels and to give
information about how transitioning to renewable energy will be difficult for Qatar.
The measures that will be taken to determine whether solutions are viable for Qatar
is to assess environmental factors, economical factors, and social factors that will
impact the transition from natural gas power to renewable energy. The major
economic factor that will pose major challenges is the cost of renewable energy
infrastructure because the technology is not readily available to consumers and
 power companies. The social factors that will need to be taken into consideration are
the cultural factors in Qatar, such as the use of large SUVs that use a lot of fuel as the
predominant mode of transportation and the widespread use of air conditioning in
homes due to the climate that is in Qatar. The environmental factors that will need
to be taken into account are the climate of Qatar. Qatar is a very hot and dry country,
so things such as hydroelectric power would not be the best alternatives for energy
because Qatar does not have a large amount of water that it could use. Solar power
could be a viable alternative to natural gas because of the prevalent sunshine that is
in the country, however the cleaning of the solar panels would need to be done using
very limited amounts of water and would need to be done frequently because of the
large amount of sand and dust present. Another factor is the size of Qatar.

Scope
The scope of this issue is throughout the entire country of Qatar because the power
plants supply the entire country with power and they rely heavily on fossil fuels
(mainly natural gas), so making sure that the country is powered with a more
reliable source that is more sustainable and more reliable. While there are other
sources that can be used to replace fossil fuels such as nuclear energy, hydroelectric
energy, and many more sources, however the most reliable and practical sources of
energy for Qatar are through wind energy and solar energy. The use of solar energy
and wind power to supply power plants needs to be widespread and accessible to the
lower classes, instead of only being available to the higher classes due to the high
costs that are prevalent with other sources of energy. With regards to solar
energy, it is only widely accessible to the rich because the costs of maintenance and
installation of solar panels in homes is very expensive because of the high costs to
make the solar panels and the high costs of the materials for solar panels. These
costs make people in the lower classes to have to rely on power sources that are
cheaper and are readily available. The scope of this topic is widespread because it is
an issue that many countries are facing, however in this essay, only solutions and
problems pertaining to Qatar will be discussed. There are many countries that have
started to experiment with different types of renewable energy sources that Qatar
could use as a model for how they can gradually implement those solutions, however
there are many different factors that need to be considered to determine the viability
of each of these solutions. Many countries in Europe, and more specifically
Scandinavia, have started to shift their focus towards renewable energy sources that
can be used to generate power for their countries, however, the climate is very
different in Scandinavia, causing there to be some solutions that are not viable
options for Qatar because Scandinavia has a very cold and wet climate, while Qatar
has the complete opposite.
Previous & Current Research
Qatar currently has about 99 percent of its energy needs supplied by natural gas.
While the country currently has copious amounts of natural gas, the resources will
eventually run out and alternatives will need to be found. Currently, 0.02 percent of
the electricity is supplied with solar power, but there are changes to make it possible
for there to be more renewable energy sources. The use of fossil fuels to produce
energy also produces a lot of waste. There are 5,742.9 tons of waste produced in
2021, however most of this waste was recycled with about 0.3 percent being
hazardous waste [2]. The energy needs of Qatar are expected to increase from 941
mW in 1988 to 8,875 mW in 2021 [3]. The desalination of water and the production of
electricity are outsourced to different companies and Kahramaa focuses on the
transmission and distribution of power. Therefore, the exact amount of electricity
produced is not known [3]. Fossil fuels release a lot of harmful gasses in the
atmosphere, which causes air pollution due to the impurities in the air. Air pollution
is highly correlated with criminal activities, since not only does it affect a person
physically (lung cancer, heart-related diseases, etc.) but it also affects their mental
state. However, using renewable energies (barring nuclear energy) does not cause a
significant decrease in social damages but still, a subtle decrease [4]. In the case of
Qatar, criminal activities are relatively uncommon and minor, so the total cost (loss
in economy) due to crimes would be lower than in the US; however, it would be wise
to prevent further air pollution before it becomes a larger problem. In South Africa,
where electricity is dominantly generated by coal-powered generators, it is
unfeasible to abandon coal due to South Africa’s reliance on coal (more than 80% of
the electricity generated is from coal). Moreover, many families rely on a family
member being a coal miner to financially support them; if coal miners lose their
jobs, many families would be financially unstable [5]. This shows that the reason
why fossil fuels are hard to quit is because renewable energies are hard to
implement.
Table 1: Shows the relative importance of various energy sources in terms of their present
of the total electricity generation in Qatar.

Figure 1: The figure above shows the amount of hazardous waste and
non-hazardous waste being generated, and the amount recycled in 2021. Note
that the amount recycled is approximately equal to the amount generated.
There are major initiatives to harness solar energy because Qatar is a very arid
country where the sun is very strong and persistent yearly, allowing it to harness a
lot of solar energy to use to power the country. There are many initiatives such as the
planning of a power plant in Al-Kharsaah, which will be fully solar powered,
however it will only be able to provide 10 percent of all the electricity in the whole
country. This power plant is expected to be able to provide 2 TWh, which can cover
55,000 Qatari houses [6]. It will also have a semi-automated system that will be
used to clean the solar panels because the solar panels need to be cleaned with a
system that takes the desert climate into account. Solar energy is a viable alternative
because it also harnesses the wasted energy that comes from the desalination plants
in the Arabian gulf to convert that into electricity through concentrated solar power.
Concentrated solar power can be used to convert the sun’s energy onto a receiver
tube to generate about 230 w/m^2 [7]. One cause of concern with solar panels is the
reliance of lithium-ion batteries; while they do not pose an imminent threat of
scarcity, lithium could be exploited (just like fossil fuels) and run out in around 50
years [8]. However, it is a great starting point to slowly integrate since it provides
economic benefits as well, such as coal miners not losing their jobs because coal has
lost its demand. Coal miners’ experience could be used to mine lithium.

Some other alternative energy sources are the use of wind power, hydroelectric
power, and nuclear power. The latter two, are not viable for Qatar specifically
because tidal power is the only form of hydroelectric power Qatar could implement
and tidal power would then have to compete with offshore wind power, which was
found to be superior in terms of power per area. As for nuclear energy, while it is
clean, produces sufficient energy, and cases of a nuclear fallout are extremely rare, it
does pose a political issue where Qatar’s neighboring countries might prevent Qatar
from utilizing nuclear energy due to transboundary damage in the case of a nuclear
fallout.

Wind energy has also been researched as being a viable alternative to fossil fuels.
However, the wind power will be greater if it is done offshore [9]. The annual mean
onshore wind power is 212 W/m^2, which is comparable to solar power generation.
The offshore wind power generation is predicted to be about 282 W/m^2, which is
significantly greater than solar power generation [9]. The generation of wind power
is more effective in the winter time because there is more wind power being
produced from the offshore windmills, and other power harnessing technology [9].
It should be mentioned that offshore wind farms would be tougher to build because
of water pressure, this would generally mean that materials would be strengthened
to endure the pressure; moreover, due to the far distance of the farm to the shore,
not only would some electrical energy would be lost due to the internal resistance of
 the electrical cables, but it might also make the farm expensive. Also, offshore wind
farms would affect the nearby marine life surrounding the farm due to the noise
pollution (echolocation disruption) and electromagnetic fields due to the moving
charges (current) in the electric cables. There are also some positive effects to the
local marine life, such as creating habitat to increase biodiversity, and allow fish
exploited by fishermen to have a safe place to be near to, since fishermen would
avoid the offshore wind farm [10].

Figure 2: The heat map diagram above shows that wind power is usually greater during
winter than summer. And that offshore wind energy is greater than onshore wind energy.

User Needs and Design Constraints

The people that will be the most affected by this problem is everyone who lives in
Qatar because the entire population needs electricity to conduct their daily lives.
Power companies are also affected by the transition because they have to develop the
technology needed to facilitate the shift to make sure that there is a gradual shift
from natural gas to renewable energy. While, the national electricity supplier of
Kahramaa is slowly making changes to try and make Qatar the regional hub for solar
energy because Qatar has massive potential for solar energy due to the massive
amounts of compressed solar energy that is generated due to the desalination plants
that require large amounts of heated water and electricity to generate usable tap
water [11].

Some of the challenges of implementing a renewable energy generator are the costs
to maintain the infrastructure for technology such as solar panels and wind
turbines, and the reliability of the renewable energy sources. The technology is still
recent and is costly to produce because of the materials that are needed and
maintenance that needs to be done so the generators could effectively produce
electricity. These needs and challenges would impact the proposed solutions because
they have to make electricity accessible to the general public by taking measures to
reduce the costs of solar panels and they have to incentivize people to use solar
energy so people will be more willing to use this type of energy. In the U.S, some
states have a feed-in tariff system, where households or businesses that generate
their own electricity (renewably) are given money. This is done to incentivize the
residents of those states, and to steer away from relying on factories using fossil
fuels. Moreover renewable energy technologies/research are supported by federal
governments via grants [12].

The solutions also have to take into account the climate of Qatar, which is very arid
and dusty, causing there to be issues when it comes to maintaining the solar panels
and cleaning them. The solution for cleaning the solar panels will also need to not
use water because the climate of Qatar is very arid because of the large deserts that
are present, which means that there are not a lot of widely available freshwater
sources that could be used to supply the water to clean the panels. The solar panels
will be implemented throughout the country and there will be many different things,
however the constraints presented will need to be taken into account when solar
energy will be widely used. Wind energy will be more feasible to supply power to
power stations because there is more power that is generated from offshore wind
turbines than from solar energy. The use of wind energy can be used in conjunction
with the solar energy generated through the solar panels to create a reliable power
source for the entire country, but it will take many years to fully implement these
solutions. However, the transition from natural gas to renewable energy can be
initiated now and there are already planned projects in place to facilitate the
transition to renewable energy. There will have to be a lot of investment put into
making Qatar’s power and energy more sustainable because there are large costs and
there needs to be a lot of technological development in this field to make it readily
available to the public. The potential solutions that are being proposed will take a
long time to implement because there needs to be a gradual shift so people start
slowly adapting to the shift towards sustainable energy. The shift from fossil fuels to
renewable energy sources will be challenging because the society is so reliant on
fossil fuels such as natural gas to power everything so the infrastructure in our
society will need to be changed so that renewable energy sources can be slowly
incorporated into the power generation facilities and the structures such as the
windmills and the solar panels will need to be implemented in those power plants,
which incurs more cost that the consumer will have to pay for with higher energy
costs. This makes renewable energy hard to implement because the facilities will be
too expensive to maintain and it also could hurt the consumers. Renewable energy is
something that will take a while to implement, but it will bring about a more
sustainable future.

Figure 3: The bar chart above shows the energy generation in Qatar between the years
2017 - 2021.
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