TotalEnergies and Veolia are getting closer to building the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) systems providing power for a desalination plant in Oman, in the city of Sur. Equipped with more than 32.000 high-efficiency solar panels, the project will cover an area of 130.000 square meters, approximately 18 football pitches.
The power plant will be located on the site of the Sharqiyah Desalination plant, which is a reference in Oman and the Gulf region. This area had never been chosen to host this type of initiative. A 17-megawatt peak (MWp) solar project whose central will use an innovative East-West tracker system to increase energy production.
Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia, says that “the team is 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”. An action that is in line with Oman’s National Energy Strategy to convert 30% of its electricity use to renewable sources by 2030.
TotalEnergies and Veolia’s solar photovoltaic systems will have the capacity to produce more than 30,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of green electricity per year. A value that is equivalent to more than a third of the desalination plant’s daily consumption and enables it to avoid around 300,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
Vincent Stoquart, in turn, defends that “the project build in Oman 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”.
The Senior Vice President of Renewables at TotalEnergies affirms as well that the company “is committed to helping Veolia decarbonize its operations, building on our strong track record of deploying renewable energy solutions at highly technical and complex sites”. Even because “as a global multi-energy company, our goal is to contribute to the development of renewables in Oman and its region”, he adds.
The impact of this project on the water sector
We already highlighted in this article the impact that the TotalEnergies and Veolia project may have on the electricity sector, however, it will be equally important for the water sector. The power plant projected by these two companies, according to what is shared in the press release, will have potential to supply drinking water to more than 600,000 inhabitants of the Sharqiyah region.
Veolia’s CEO assumes the aim of “bringing the ecological transformation in the water sector for our clients and our assets”. As one of the key players of Oman’s water sector, “we are fully focused on supporting Oman’s Vision 2040 sustainability objectives for the Sultanate’s communities and industries”, assures Estelle Brachlianoff.
Companies are striving for a greener future
Sustainability is one of the big concerns of some companies. This is the case of Veolia, which has been dedicating itself to the development of solutions to optimize the energy efficiency of its desalination activities.
One of these solutions is its Sharqiyah Desalination plant, idealized in partnership with TotalEnergies. Through this project “a further step is taken towards green transformation”, considering that “the plant is powered with renewable energy instead of fossil fuels”.
The potentiation of a more environmentally friendly future also goes through the support that TotalEnergies is committed to giving to the producing countries. Namely “promoting a better utilization of the country’s natural resources”. We speak, for example, about “solar energy, which will directly improve the accessibility of cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable electricity”.
Getting involved in all these initiatives “TotalEnergies is leveraging its leadership position in the region to develop large-scale solar projects in Qatar, Iraq, and Libya”. Actions that “illustrate our sustainable development model as a global multi-energy company that supports producing countries in their energy transition”.
At the end of June 2022, TotalEnergies’ gross renewable electricity generation capacity was 12GW. The idea is that this business keeps growing and that the gross production capacity from renewable sources and storage will reach 35GW by 2025 and then 100GW by 2030. The company also aims to get to net zero by 2050 and become one of the world’s top five producers of electricity from wind and solar energy.
