Shagaya renewable energy park project

Abstract

The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) has developed Phase I of the innovative Shagaya Renewable Energy Park, which has an ambitious Master Plan to install approximately 3.2 GWe of renewable power as part of Kuwait’s commitment to generate 15% renewable energy by 2030. This project, built on 84 km2 in the desert location of Al-Shagaya, is approximately 100 km west of Kuwait City and comprises multiple renewable technologies as well as interconnection and site infrastructure. The Project objective is to enable the implementation of renewable alternatives to the use of fossil fuel resources to generate electricity in an effort to reduce emissions. The project evaluates the requirements of concentrated solar power (CSP), photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy technologies by testing how to address the challenges posed by the harsh Kuwaiti desert environment to these different technologies. WorleyParsons was appointed in 2014 as the Owner’s Engineer and Project Management Consultant to support KISR with project implementation and contracting and oversight of the Design Build Operate (DBO) contractors through commissioning and the first 2 years of operation. The project has demonstrated that two of the technologies, PV and Wind, which have now been in operation over a year, have exceeded the generation predictions. The CSP plant is currently in the final stages of commissioning. This paper presents an overview of the project with a primary focus on the CSP plant, key Lessons Learned, and the concerted efforts required to meet clear HSE requirements. Also discussed more briefly are the wind farm and the PV plant given the increased trend to integrate CSP and PV technologies as synergistic generators or to offset auxiliary loads of the CSP plant.