By: AGBI

Oman are to build a 125MW wind farm in the country’s southern region, providing clean electricity to more than 18,000 homes.

The state-owned Nama Power and Water Procurement Company (Nama PWP) has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with a joint venture between OQ Alternative Energy and Sembcorp Utilities, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries.

The Dhofar II wind power project, spanning 12 million square metres, is expected to begin commercial operations in the third quarter of 2027, Sembcorp said in a statement.

Oman’s energy minister, Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, said the project will cost nearly OMR43 million ($112 million). He added that it will advance the sultanate’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Ahmed bin Salim Al Abri, CEO of Nama PWP, said the wind farm will have an annual generation capacity of 396,754 megawatt-hours, adding that it will free up around 76 million cubic metres of natural gas annually.

Nama PWP has contracted 26 electricity and water desalination plants over the past 15 years, attracting investments exceeding $11 billion.

The company plans to attract a further $5 billion over the next five years, mainly in renewable energy and storage technologies, said chief energy transition officer Abdullah bin Rashid Al Sawafi.

Nama PWP wants to add 9GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, representing 60 percent of total contracted capacity, he said.

Sembcorp has over 1.1GW of energy assets in Oman and has invested nearly $1 billion to develop a desalination plant in Salalah, according to the company’s website.

Oman is targeting a renewable energy share of 30-40 percent in its electricity mix by 2030, with plans to scale that to 60-70 percent by 2040. The Gulf nation expects to reach 100 percent clean energy capacity by 2050.

The Gulf state is tendering five wind power projects with a combined capacity of over 1GW at an investment of OR450 million ($1.2 billion).