Oman is committed to renewable energies and will have the largest solar plant on the planet to desalinate water

Oman is to build the largest solar plant for desalinating water on the planet, in a further step in its commitment to renewable energies. It will be located on the grounds of the Sharqiyah Desalination Plant, which supplies drinking water to more than 600,000 inhabitants in this country.

TotalEnergies and Veolia have signed a historic agreement to launch the construction of the world's largest photovoltaic project to supply a seawater desalination plant.

This project will have a capacity of 17 megawatts peak (MWp) and will be the first of its kind in the Middle East. It will produce more than 30 gigawatt hours (GWh) of green electricity per year, which is more than a third of the desalination plant's daily consumption.

This initiative is part of the Sultanate's ongoing energy strategy to increase the share of renewable energy to 30% of total electricity consumption by 2030. 

The facility will have more than 32,000 high-efficiency panels and will use an innovative system to optimise energy production. The plant will cover an area of 130,000 square metres, equivalent to about 18 football fields.

Veolia CEO Estelle Brachlianoff welcomed the project: "At Veolia, we are committed to achieving the green transformation of the water sector for our customers and for our own assets. We are pleased to launch the construction of this solar plant at our desalination unit in the city of Sur, in order to supply it with green electricity and significantly reduce its carbon footprint".

"As a major player in the water sector in Oman, Veolia is fully committed to supporting the Vision 2040 sustainable development goals for the Sultanate's populations and industries. Our solar project with TotalEnergies goes in this direction," he added.

"This project is in line with our strategy, which is to develop renewable energy in the Middle East to provide our customers with clean, reliable and affordable solutions," said Vincent Stoquart, Director of Renewables at TotalEnergies.

"We are committed to helping Veolia decarbonise its operations by leveraging our expertise in deploying photovoltaic solutions on complex industrial sites. As a global multi-energy company, we aim to contribute to the development of renewable energy in Oman and its region," he added.

This project is in line with the policy that TotalEnergies has been pursuing in recent years, as one of its main objectives is to help hydrocarbon-producing countries to have a future in which their natural resources are fundamental to their development, in particular solar energy.