Oman Daily Observer

South Oman alone has renewable energy potential of 300 – 500 GW

Prodigious capacity: Offshore wind potential of 300 GW to be explored once land-based projects are substantia­lly developed

- CONRAD PRABHU MUSCAT, MAY 22

The southern part of the Sultanate of Oman, characteri­sed by vast sun-soaked desert expanses and rugged wind-swept terrain, has ample renewable resources to generate a world-beating 300 – 500 gigawatts (GW) of zero carbon electricit­y.

Together with an estimated 300 GW of offshore wind capacity, the Sultanate of Oman is wellpositi­oned to emerge among the world’s leading players in the green energy industry, Eng Salim bin Nasser al Aufi (pictured), Minister of Energy and Minerals, said here on Monday.

The upbeat assessment of Oman’s prodigious renewable energy potential came at the opening of IEEE Power Talks — a 3-day forum on the power and energy sector co-hosted by Raya Services and UMS Event.

Delivering the keynote address, Al Aufi provided an overview of

Oman’s ambitious bid to kickstart the developmen­t of a green hydrogen based sector in line with the government’s Net Zero strategy.

That effort is well and truly under way, he said, noting that the Ministry has already signed agreements for six green hydrogen projects earlier this year (under the legacy route).

More agreements are in the offing under the auction route overseen by Hydrom, the orchestrat­or of Oman’s nascent green hydrogen industry. “We are negotiatin­g the first two auction blocks, which will hopefully be signed by the end of this month or early next month,” the minister said.

“Thus, all in all, if everything goes well, we are looking at generating anything between 25 – 30 GW within the next 5 – 7 years. When you compare that with a current generation capacity of about 10 – 11 GW, we are effectivel­y multiplyin­g the total electricit­y generated — and this time it’s going to be green electricit­y,” he stated.

Total investment in green hydrogen projects is estimated at $30 – 40 billion over the next seven years, Al Aufi said. Much of the output of green hydrogen from these projects will be potentiall­y converted into green ammonia or some other carrier for export.

But ultimately, the goal for Oman is to utilise part of this output to decarbonis­e the local industry and economy, he stressed. Longer term, however, Oman’s renewable energy output can be scaled up to stellar levels, according to the minister.

“In terms of renewable energy alone, we estimate that South Oman can potentiall­y generate anywhere between 300 to 500 GW of electricit­y — that’s a lot of power that is generated in one country. Of course, this means there is a lot of work that we need to do. (Envisioned timeframes) will probably be 2050, 2060 or 2070,” he said.

Equally promising, Al Aufi pointed out, is the offshore wind sector, which is presently not on the ministry’s radar because of the relatively high capital cost involved.

“Let’s first get the (land-based projects) moving, and then we can start looking at the offshore potential. There’s probably another 300 GW that we can produce from the offshore sector at some point in time.

And later, we can go back again to the areas that we did not touch either because it’s a military training zone or an environmen­tal reserve and see how we can coexist. And of course that itself will have huge generation capacity.”

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