Norwegian renewables company Scatec and Indian solar developer ACME Group have signed a joint venture agreement to develop a large-scale green ammonia facility in Oman with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tonnes once fully developed.
The facility will be built in different phases, with the first one powered by 500MW of solar, featuring 300MW of electrolyser capacity and expected to produce 100,000 tonnes of green ammonia per year.
Raymond Carlsen, CEO of Scatec, said: “Oman has excellent solar resources and a strategic location for production of green ammonia. ACME Group has been in the forefront of green ammonia production with this project, and in Scatec we can capitalise on our expertise in renewables, project structuring and financing, execution and operation to accelerate the decarbonisation of the world.”
The project will be located in the Duqm special economic zone of Oman. Last year, ACME started construction of a green hydrogen project at the Port of Duqm, Oman, in collaboration with the local government.
Manoj Upadhyay, founder and chairman of ACME Group, said: “Given the strategic location of the project, technical insights and cost-effective solutions that ACME has developed for the project of this kind, along with internationally proven project development capabilities of Scatec, I believe jointly we will be a formidable player in accelerating adoption of this green fuel globally.”
Last year, both companies partnered to develop a 900MW solar power plant in the state of Rajasthan, India. However, Scatec said last month it has put the project on hold due to a lack of supply of domestic modules and the upcoming introduction of a new import duty.
Oman has been setting itself up to become an important hub in green hydrogen and ammonia by attracting many companies to invest in the country. Among those, in May 2021 an international consortium unveiled a hydrogen complex that will include up to 25GW solar and wind capacity to produce millions of tonnes of green fuels per year.
Earlier this year, Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals signed a multi-gigawatt renewables and green hydrogen partnership with energy major bp.