Oman

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.

The Rural Areas Electricity Company wants to build hybrid plants in 11 non-interconnected areas of the sultanate. The projects will have a total of 48 MW of solar power generation capacity and 70 MW of diesel and the storage component will have total installed power of 28 MW and a storage capacity of 14 MWh.

Through a new procuremente exercise, the Oman Power and Water Procurement company (OPWP) is now seeking developers for the Manah Solar I IPP and Manah Solar II IPP projects with a capacity of 500 MW and 600 MW, respectively. Both plants will be located at Manah which is around 150 km southwest of Muscat.

The first part of the project will see the company connect a 25 MW PV station to a carbon ferrochrome smelter in the free zone. Several more plants could follow, ranging in size from 10 MW to 40 MW.