84 new villas in Kuwait will be partially powered by the sun with the help of ABB’s solar inverter technology, power solutions company has revealed.
The 150 residential houses project is initiated and fully funded by Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). The project demonstrates the role of solar energy in Kuwait, as a key solution in the ever-growing demand for energy.
The project is implemented by Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), in coordination with local renewable energy solutions contractor Life Energy. The project will prove that grid-integrated, rooftop Photovoltaic systems for homes in Kuwait are now a reality and is anticipated to encourage lawmakers, decision makers and the public, to be part of the effort to achieve the national target of 15 percent of electricity demand from renewable sources by 2030.
Indeed, with bright sunshine throughout the year, Kuwait’s desire to induct solar power into the energy mix has gathered momentum in recent years and solar installations like these are much welcomed by both local residents and governing bodies.
Hamad Alradhan, CEO of Life Energy comments: “Rooftop solar is an essential part of the solution to achieve Kuwait’s ambitious renewable energy goals. Residential applications pose unique challenges for manufacturers and system design engineers. The extensive capacity range of quality string inverter from ABB enables us to successfully achieve the desired efficiency of our system designs and to take full advantage of the high solar irradiance in Kuwait.”
Each villa will be fitted with a 3.6 to 12.5 kW capacity solar power system, depending on the available space on the roof of each villa, with ABB’s string inverter technology. The main aim of those small plants is to reduce utility bills for the villa’s owners by 3-5 percent annually by making maximum use of the sun’s energy. A range of single and three-phase string inverters, convert DC power generated by the solar panels into AC power, helping the villas to be more energy self-sufficient.
Turkey Noor, Sales and Marketing manager from ABB’s Electrification Products division in Kuwait explains: “We firmly believe that solar technology should be a leading sustainable energy source for both distributed power generation and building applications. That is why we are always committed to innovating our range of solar technology, developing new PV storage solutions and product platforms to ensure the best possible performance for our customers.
“We are delighted to be working with Life Energy and are confident that this installation will demonstrate the effectiveness of our solar inverter technology in helping to realize Kuwait‘s energy objectives.”
