17 MW Solar Plant For Water Desalination

• TotalEnergies is to build a 17 MW solar power plant in Oman to power Veolia's Sharqiyah Desalination Plant
• The project is currently under construction in Sur within the premises of the desalination plant
• On completion, it is estimated to generated over 30 GWh of solar power to account for 1/3^rd of the plant's daily consumption

France's TotalEnergies has started construction of a 17 MW solar PV plant for Veolia's seawater desalination plant in Oman that supplies drinking water to over 600,000 inhabitants, making it the 'largest' solar system for desalination plant in the country.

The solar power project will be equipped with more than 32,000 high efficiency solar panels and use east-west tracking system. It is coming up in the city of Sur within the premises of Sharqiyah Desalination Plant, and will generate over 30 GWh of green energy annually on completion. It will equate over 1/3^rd of the desalination plant's daily consumption.

French water and waste management company Veolia says this solar plant will enable the site to bring down its carbon emissions.

"This project is in line with our strategy, which is to develop renewable energies in the Middle East in order to provide our customers with clean, reliable and affordable solutions," declared Renewables Director of TotalEnergies, Vincent Stoquart."We are committed to helping Veolia decarbonize its operations, leveraging our experience in deploying photovoltaic solutions on complex industrial sites."

Water desalination is an energy intensive process that desalinates or removes salt and other constituents from seawater to make it drinkable, and solar is emerging as a useful solution. In 2018, a European Union (EU) funded desalination plant powered by 500 kW solar power plant was supplying clean drinking water to 75,000 people in Palestine's Gaza Strip (see EU Commissions PV System For Water In Gaza).

In 2021, under an agreement Jordan agreed to establish a 600 MW solar power plant in the country to supply power generated to Israel while the latter promised to build a sustainable water desalination plant in the country to supply Jordan with up to 200 million cubic waters (see Solar Energy For Water Deal In Middle East).

Oman's largest PV project so far was connected to the grid in Jan. 2022 with 500 MW AC capacity (see 500 MW AC Ibri II PV Project Online In Oman)