Dubai: The energy giant Shell has gone live with a 25MW solar plant in Sohar, Oman. The project - Shell's first utility scale, photovoltaic (PV) solar project in the Middle East - will help Sohar's port and free zone tap into green energy for its needs.
The Sohar Solar Qabas plant is located on a 50-hectare site within Sohar free zone, and consists of over 88,000 solar modules. The electricity output is supplied to a large ferrochrome production facility, in turn displacing the equivalent gas-fired power generation taken from the grid. It will end up reducing 25,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
The project was completed to budget and on time. The project is "in line with our ambition to become a net-zero emission energy business by 2050... or sooner," said Walid Hadi, Oman Shell’s Vice-President and Country Chairman.
