French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company, TotalEnergies and Veolia recently signed an agreement to commence the construction of the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) system which will provide power for a desalination plant in Oman, in the city of Sur. The solar power plant will be located on the site of the Sharqiyah Desalination plant, which is a reference in Oman and in the Gulf region, which supplies drinking water to more than 600,000 inhabitants of the Sharqiyah region. The plant has a peak capacity of 17 megawatts peak (MWp) and the solar project will be the first of its kind to be constructed in the region. With an annual production of over 30,000-megawatt hours (MWh) of green electricity, which will constitute more than a third of the desalination plant’s consumption, thus avoiding around 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
“At Veolia, we are committed to bring the ecological transformation in the water sector for our clients and for our own assets. We’re happy to launch the construction of the solar plant on our desalination unit in the city of Sur, to be able to power it with the green electricity while drastically reducing its carbon footprint, Estelle Brachlianoff, Chief Executive Officer of Veolia said. As one of the key players of Oman’s water sector, Veolia is fully committed to supporting Oman’s Vision 2040 sustainability objectives for the Sultanate’s communities and industries and our solar project with TotalEnergies goes in this direction.”
“This project is in line with our strategy to develop renewable energy in the Middle East and provide our customers with clean, reliable and affordable energy solutions. We are committed to helping Veolia decarbonize its operations, building on our strong track record of deploying renewable energy solutions at highly technical and complex sites. As a global multi-energy company, our goal is to contribute to the development of renewables in Oman and its region,” said Vincent Stoquart, Senior Vice President of Renewables at TotalEnergies.