The Gulf region is seeing an increase in the use of roofing space to harness its abundant solar power while addressing the need for sustainability and producing energy through renewable sources.

Dubai, in particular, has been making impressive strides in a bid to become a global centre of clean energy in line with the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, under which the government has called for solar panels to be installed on every roof in the emirate by 2030.

One company which has been making headlines recently for helping other firms and institutions go solar while effectively using their roof space is UAE-based SirajPower, which provides comprehensive turnkey solutions combining development, financing, construction, and operation of solar rooftops and carports for a range of projects. The company has over five years of experience across the UAE and helps institutions right from the initial consultation, project development and construction to operation and maintenance.

Longuet ... building solar roofs.

“We believe that rooftops are the ideal platform for most buildings and institutions to build solar panels on. As we frequently see in the region, roof spaces are mostly unused or not utilised to their full potential. SirajPower evolves those unused spaces into energy-generating sustainable solar roofs,” Laurent Longuet, CEO of SirajPower, tells Gulf Construction.

Its latest success is with Rex Dubai, which has tied up with the company to install a 2.3 MWp solar rooftop system in its cold store and state-of-the-art, temperature-controlled dry warehouse in Al Quoz.

Rex Dubai is an end-to-end logistics solution provider and owner of the warehouse. Through this project, SirajPower will help Rex Dubai better utilise its rooftop space of more than 22,000 sq m by transforming it into a sustainable energy solution, create savings while producing 3.8 GWh of clean and lower-cost energy.

SirajPower is also in collaboration with Al Ghurair Group, one of the largest diversified family business groups in the Middle East, to implement solar systems across its facilities in the UAE. As a first initiative, the solar energy solutions provider has been appointed to design, construct, operate, and maintain a 1.8 MWp solar rooftop plant for Gulf Extrusions’ facility located at Jebel Ali in Dubai. The project involves 4,500 solar panels that will annually generate 3 GWh of clean energy, offsetting over 2,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Al Ghurair Group is among the latest additions to SirajPower’s impressive and continuously growing portfolio of blue-chip names in the UAE – which includes over 170 solar plant assets across the country to date. 

The distributed solar energy provider also recently signed a deal with Choithrams, a leading grocery retailer and food distributor in the Middle East, to help it shift from conventional power to 100 per cent renewable energy.

Choithrams’ solar rooftop project for three warehouses at Al Quoz involves installing a 2.7 MWp system capacity that to generate 4.5 GWh energy annually.

In the F&B sector, SirajPower also counts Lifco, one of the largest and long-established consumer food distributors in the UAE, among its clients, having commissioned 2 MWp solar rooftop producing 3.5 GWh of clean energy per year. 

SirajPower has also made a foray into the educational institutions sector with  Kent College Dubai, where a 1.3 MWp solar rooftop plant and solar carport has been installed - the largest in scale in Dubai’s education sector. The system will generate 2.3 GWh of annual energy production and displacing approximately 1,600 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

Anthony Cashin, Principal at Kent College Dubai, says: “The solar panel installed will see a reduction of our Dewa electricity costs of up to 50 per cent, thus focusing on the school’s commitment to more sustainable energy solutions as well as a reduction of our carbon footprint.”

SirajPower says it currently operates the largest distributed solar energy portfolio of 50 MWp in the UAE.