Oman

Saudi energy company Acwa Power announces $275 million has been borrowed for a project which is due to start supplying electricity to the national utility this year under a 15-year power supply deal.

A’Namaa Poultry is seeking proposals for a solar power plant. The project selected will reportedly secure a power supply deal lasting up to 25 years.

Belgian engineer DEME is planning up to 500 MW of hydrogen production capacity at the port of Dumq, which is rich in solar and wind power resources. The engineer plans to ship hydrogen from the port to Europe.

Solar deployment continued to pick up in the Middle East and North Africa in 2019, the Middle East Solar Industry Association has said in its annual report.

As it moves towards grid connection this month, the solar project in the south of Oman demonstrates the value proposition of n-type PV cell technology, Chinese solar manufacturer Jolywood has argued at the World Future Energy Summit. The project is said to be the largest n-type bifacial array in the world.

By this time next year we may be able to wave goodbye to that old chestnut about renewables endangering security of supply. Elsewhere, the price of lithium – and the products it goes into – could go either way after tanking this year.

Oman Power and Water Procurement Co. has named eight of the nine bidders vying to develop twin 500-600 MW solar plants in the sultanate, but the energy off-taker has sown doubt by claiming that the contracts will be awarded to private sector entities.

The state-owned Rural Areas Electricity Company wants to build 11 solar-diesel-storage projects in isolated rural areas. Pre-qualified bidders in the tender include Engie, Canadian Solar, Akuo, Longi, Jinko, GCL, Abengoa, Total and Belectric.

With Kuwait, Qatar and even renewables laggard Saudi Arabia following in the wake of regional clean energy pioneer the UAE, a raft of huge solar tenders is entering the Middle Eastern project pipeline. Obstacles remain to overseas project developers but significant rewards are on offer.

The Lone Star State accounted for almost half of the activity witnessed in the world’s biggest corporate clean energy marketplace but analysts are excited about the prospect of Beijing mandating companies to purchase minimum levels of green electricity.