The Syrian government signed a $7 billion deal on Thursday with four companies led by Qatar’s UCC Holding to expand its electricity grid by 5,000 megawatts. The move could potentially double the country’s power supply, which has long suffered from shortages and outages amid years of civil war.

What happened: The deal involves building four combined-cycle gas turbine power plants with a total capacity of 4,000 MW, plus a 1,000 MW solar plant in southern Syria, UCC Holding said in a statement. 

UCC Concession Investments, a unit of UCC Holding, will be the lead developer on the project, which will also involve Turkish firms Kalyon GES Enerji Yatirimlari and Cengiz Enerji as well as Power International USA, the US-based subsidiary of Qatar's Power International Holding, Reuters reported Wednesday.

UCC said the project’s construction is due to begin after the deal is finalized, but the exact date was not specified. The gas plants are expected to be completed within three years, while the solar facility is slated for completion in under two years, the statement read. The completed projects are expected to provide more than half of Syria’s electricity needs.