Ecologia, Medio Ambiente y Energias Renovables en la Naturaleza

The Sultanate announced last Friday that Switzerland's Terra Nex Financial Engineering A.G. and Germany's Middle East Best Select Group of Funds are in negotiations with Oman-Green Energy L.L.C. to develop a 400-MW solar farm in the oil and gas exporting country.

The construction date was not disclosed but the facilities that will manufacture the solar panels and aluminum frames to be used by the project will also be built for Oman and for export, according to statement.

Oil-rich Gulf countries are making sure that they do not get left behind in the renewable energy race. Oman's solar plans are hot on the heels of Dubai last week, which announced the planned development of a 1-gigawatt solar farm over the next two decades at an estimated cost of12 billion dirham ($3.27 billion).

European support

To fund the project, Middle East Best opened a private investment fund named "Solar Energy-Photovoltaik in Oman" with an initial investment of $200 million aimed to finance the first phase of the project.

The rest of the $2 billion needed will be financed by investors according to the stages of the project, a statement showed.

David Heimhofer, chairman of Terra Nex, was quoted by the Oman Daily Observer as saying that around $600 million of the $2 billion would be in the form of equity capital managed by his company and Middle East Best.

The two firms have also partnered with Sheikh Hilal bin Khalid bin Nasir al-Ma'awali to raise 40 percent of the capital needed through the stock market after not more than four years from the operation of the project, according to a separate statement from the Oman News Agency.

The public offering is expected to be a boon for the Sultanate by enlisting the company in the European stock markets, especially in Germany and Switzerland. German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG has already signaled its interest in the project, according to Mr. Heimhofer.

The project is expected to create 2000 green jobs. An institution for renewable energy technology engineering will be set up in partnership with an unnamed European University to train Omanis to be up to the task.

Renewable Energy in Oman

Despite plentiful sunshine, the Middle East region's solar power production is tiny compared with countries in Europe. Driven by huge subsidies, Germany and Italy has become the world's largest solar markets despite receiving much less sunlight.

Oman has a long way to go when it comes to renewable energy, with a target for energy sources like the sun and wind to account for 10 percent of the country's energy needs by 2020 from having no renewable energy capacity back in 2008.

"Oman's stable business environment and pro-environmental policies makes the Sultanate a natural partner to this project," Mr. Heimhofer said, as reported by the by the Oman Daily Observer.

"The government's aim to produce 10 percent of its energy needs from renewable energy resources by 2020 is laudable. And this project will go a long way in making that vision a reality," he added. (Oliver M. Bayani)

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