Crown prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani of Qatar took part in a ceremony on 4 May 2009 to mark the start of construction of the Ras Girtas Power & Water Project in the Ras Laffan industrial zone.
The project will be built by a joint venture company set up in March 2008 by Qatar Petroluem, Qatar Electricity & Water Company, Mitsui and Suez Energy. It will provide a new power generation and desalination plant with a capacity of 2,730 MW of electricity and 63 MIGD (286,400 m³/d) of water for Kahramaa (Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation) .
The US$ 3.9 billion plant will have 10 desalination units based on multiple-effect distillation and supplied by SIDEM.
This will give the Arab state a total power generating capacity of 9,000 MW and a desalination capacity of more than 320 MIGD (1.45 million m³/d).