Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, announced the installation of the first of 13 turbines at the 50 MW Dhofar Wind Farm. Located in the southern Omani governorate of Dhofar, the project is fully financed by Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD).
The project follows an agreement signed in 2014 between Masdar and the Rural Areas Electricity Company of Oman (TANWEER). A Masdar-led consortium including GE and Spain’s TSK is developing the Gulf region’s first large-scale commercial wind farm.
GE is providing the project’s 3.8 MW wind turbines, while TSK is responsible for the rest of the wind farm’s infrastructure, which includes medium- and high-voltage substations and 13-kilometres of overhead transmission lines. Masdar is the project developer and implementation lead.
The Dhofar Wind Farm is expected to become operational by the third quarter of 2019. It will supply seven per cent of the Dhofar governorate’s electricity demand, or enough clean energy to power an estimated 16,000 homes, while offsetting an estimated 110,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Once complete, the wind farm will be handed over to TANWEER, which will then operate the plant and supply the generated electricity to the local Dhofar power grid through an overhead power line managed by the Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC).
The Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) will offtake the generated electricity from TANWEER in line with a power purchase agreement (PPA) signed on September 12, 2017.
All 13 turbines are scheduled to be installed by March.
