Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec) has been recognised as the ‘Best GCC Integrated Solar Company Award’ in recognition of its advancement along the solar value chain by World Finance magazine.
Dr Khalid Klefeekh al-Hajri, chairman and CEO, QSTec, was invited to attend the awards ceremony held at the London Stock Exchange (LSE). QSTec is a member of Qatar Foundation.
“We would like to thank Qatar Foundation, SolarWorld, Qatar Development Bank, Centrotherm and our staff for the instrumental role they have played in all of our successes,” said Dr al-Hajri.  
“The consortium between QSTec, SolarWorld and Centrotherm was developed to share knowledge, utilise each other’s key strengths and improve costs and efficiencies. To win this award based on our strategic direction for advancement is very encouraging for QSTec and the region’s solar industry,” he added.
In post-award interviews held at the LSE, Dr al-Hajri said the two greatest challenges for the renewable energy sector was the need to continually drive down costs to make renewables even more cost-competitive with other forms of electricity production, and the need to make energy storage solutions more available, scalable and at a lower cost.  
However, Dr al-Hajri emphasised that the solution involved stakeholders uniting, in the interest of development, to overcome the fragmentation prevalent in the renewable energy industry and join together to address these key issues. “Our consortium has come together to address these issues head on and we urge others in the industry to collaborate together so we can progress much faster,” he noted.
Further, Dr al-Hajri explained that the success of QSTec in constructing the first-of-its-kind polysilicon production facility in the Middle East and North Africa region, coupled with QSTec strategic investments, would play a major role in shaping the region’s solar industry. The facility will produce 8,000 metric tonnes of polysilicon and can expand along the value chain to produce over 45,000 tonnes of polysilicon a year.
This is the second award won by QSTec in quick succession. A few weeks ago, it picked up a Ta’atheer Award for Best CSR Integrated Business for its Shams Generation solar learning initiative.

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