Syria has signed a memorandum of understanding with a consortium of international companies led by Qatar's UCC Holding to develop major power generation projects with a foreign investment valued at about $7 billion, UCC said in a statement on Thursday.

The agreement involves building four combined-cycle gas turbine power plants with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts, plus a 1,000 MW solar power plant in southern Syria.

Construction is expected to begin after final agreements and financial close, and is targeted to finish within three years for the gas plants and less than two years for the solar plant.

After 14 years of war, Syria’s electricity sector has been suffering from severe damage to its grid and power stations, aging infrastructure, and persistent fuel shortages, generating only 1.6 gigawatts of electricity today, down from 9.5 GW before 2011.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa. Writing by Ahmed Elimam. Editing by Mark Potter)