Renewable

December 27 (Renewables Now) - Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy major Masdar said on Wednesday the first of the 13 turbines that will make up the 50-MW Dhofar wind farm in Oman has been installed.

Installation of all turbines, of the GE 3.8-130 model by GE Renewable Energy, is to be completed by March 2019. The wind farm will become operational by the third quarter of the year.

Masdar is the project developer and implementation lead, US conglomerate General Electric (NYSE:GE) is supplying the 3.8-MW turbines, and TSK of Spain is in charge of the remaining infrastructure, such as substations and transmission lines.

Once up and running, the wind park will be handed over to the Rural Areas Electricity Company of Oman (RAECO/TANWEER). The latter will operate it and sell power to the Oman Power and Water Procurement Co (OPWP) under a power purchase agreement (PPA) struck in September 2017. The wind farm’s output will be enough to meet 7% of Dhofar governorate’s electricity demand, avoiding 110,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year.

This is Oman’s first large-scale renewables project. TANWEER is already looking to build more renewables, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, to expand its existing generation capacity, said CEO Saleh Bin Nasser Al Rumhi.