Oman’s Rural Areas Electricity Company (Tanweer) has announced the start of electricity generation at the sultanate’s first utility-scale wind farm, the 50MW capacity Dhofar Wind Power Project at Harweel in the southern Dhofar governorate. The farm’s 13 wind turbines will now be tested with a view to achieving commercial operation “in the coming months,” Tanweer tweeted on 8 August. The project was developed by Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, Spain’s TSK and US firm GE, the latter of which supplied the farm’s 13 wind turbines.

Financing for the $200mn wind farm was only completed in 2017 after the project was first given the go-ahead in 2014 (MEES, 25 August 2017). The farm will deliver electricity to state utility OPWP to supply customers via the local grid. Dhofar is Oman’s only wind project, although OPWP has announced a number of large-scale solar projects recently (MEES, 2 August). Only in March did OPWP request proposals for a wind resource assessment at multiple sites around the country. (CONTINUED - 161 WORDS)