Oman’s renewable energy industry is set to get a boost with seven more solar power projects bring planned in the Sultanate, according to a report.

Speaking at the launch of commercial operation of Oman’s first solar project in Wilayat of Al Mazyona in Dhofar, Hamad bin Salim Al Maghdari, chief executive officer, Rural Areas Electricity Company (RAEC), was quoted as saying that the tender process for three of the projects will start at the end of the final quarter of this year, said the Oman Daily Observer report.

Built at a cost of about $1 million and implemented by Bahwan Astonfield Solar Energy Company with a daily production capacity of 1667 kW per hour, the project will become commercially operational in September this year.

A study conducted by RAEC found that if electricity is produced from solar energy in any area of the Sultanate, only seven hours are allocated for this kind of energy per day.

“This will be enough to restore the value of what has been spent on the installation of solar power plant in 4.5 years, it is high time for implementation solar projects in order to relieve the government of subsidy burden on the state budget,” Al Maghdari was quoted as saying.

The participation of the private sector will be sought for investment in the projects, he said.

The findings of the study proved that the 250 to 300 kW produced from the solar panels located in the Sultanate are equivalent in efficiency to a capacity of 1000 kW in Europe.

“This indicates that the enormous amount of sunlight falling on the territory of the Sultanate qualifies it to produces solar energy using a number of panels less than that is used by other regions or countries”, he added.

Source: Trade Arabia