By: AGBI

China’s Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group has signed a $200 million agreement to build a wind turbine factory in Oman’s central industrial city of Duqm.

Duqm, which sits on international shipping routes, has attracted over $15 billion in project spending, including a 230,000 barrels per day oil refinery, a crude oil storage facility, a free zone, a dry dock for ship repair and a port. 

In the last five years Oman has been active in moving away from fossil energy investments to greener power generation. 

“Eventually, all these projects will be powered by clean energy and this wind turbine plant will help to achieve our 20-year plan target for a pollution-free environment,” Oman’s minister of energy and minerals, Salim Al Oufi told Oman Television.

Al Oufi said that “providing affordable clean energy is the biggest priority for Oman right now.”

The plant is expected to be completed by August next year and to be able to produce turbines capable of generating 1,000 megawatts each year, enough for about 750,000 homes. 

Last year, Oman’s state-run Hydrom signed two agreements worth $11 billion with a consortium led by Electricité de France (EDF Group) as well as Actis and Fortescue to develop green hydrogen projects in Dhofar in the south of the sultanate.