Oman plans to build the country’s first utility-scale solar independent power project (IPP) in Ibri with a capacity to generate 500 megawatt (MW) of electricity, a media report said.

The solar project would meet the electricity demand of 33,000 homes and offset 340,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, Yaqoob Saif Hamood Al Kiyumi, chief executive officer of Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) was quoted as saying in a Times of Oman report.

The estimated project cost is $500 million, which will be built, owned and operated by the private sector, he explained.

The scope of the project includes financing, procurement, engineering, construction, operation and maintenance of a new power plant, which will be located at Ibri — some 300km west from Muscat.

The project will be awarded in the second half of the fourth quarter of 2018, and it will be commercially operational by early 2021.

A request for qualification to pre-qualify bidders will be floated soon and OPWP plans to award the project before the end of next year. “By the end of first quarter of 2018, we will be able to finalise the list of pre-qualified companies and issue tender documents,” added Al Kiyumi.

The solar project will also be done according to the build, own and operate (BOO) model, the report noted.