Beyond the Panel: The BeSolar Immersive Awareness Challenge

Qatar’s National Renewable Energy Strategy targets 4 GW of renewable capacity, including 200 MW of distributed solar that regular customers can connect to the grid. To enable this, KAHRAMAA launched the BeSolar service and a highly attractive net-billing scheme where certain customer segments are paid more per kWh exported than they pay for imported electricity.

Today, BeSolar is operational with multiple contractors and consultants, and KAHRAMAA already runs awareness activities through KAHRAMAA Awareness Park, events, training workshops and site visits. However, training and communication are fragmented across manuals, classroom sessions, videos and occasional visits to physical PV installations. 

The current available tools and physical facilities introduce a number of challenges: 

• Building and continuously upgrading physical demonstration sites is costly and slow
• There is limited public understanding of net billing
• Awareness activities are currently resource-intensive and not scalable
• Contractors use different installation methods resulting in inconsistent quality
• There is a lack of interactive tools for consultants to 5isualize designs
• KAHRAMAA staff requiring standardized inspection simulation
• Researchers are lacking testbed environments for system studies

KAHRAMAA is therefore looking to create an immersive BeSolar Awareness Lab—preferably VR/XR-based, but open to other innovative approaches—that can: 

• Visually and interactively explain rooftop PV and net billing to the public
• Provide hands-on, safe training space for contractors
• Evolve over time to support consultants, internal staff and researchers