Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), the Sultanate’s state-owned utility firm, on Wednesday unveiled plans to build the country’s first utility-scale solar independent power project (IPP) in Ibri with a capacity to generate 500 megawatt of electricity. This is part of a larger initiative to enhance the contribution of renewable energy in the total energy mix to 10 per cent by 2025.

Addressing the media to announce the mega renewable energy venture, Eng. Yaqoob Saif Hamood Al Kiyumi, chief executive officer of OPWP, said that the solar project would meet the electricity demand of 33,000 homes and offset 340,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. This is one of the largest solar projects in the entire Gulf Cooperation Council region.

The estimated project cost is approximately $500 million, which will be built, owned and operated by the private sector, and the scope of the project includes financing, procurement, engineering, construction, operation and maintenance of a new power plant, which will be located at Ibri — some 300km west from Muscat.

The project will be awarded in the second half of the fourth quarter of 2018, and it will be commercially operational by early 2021.