Oman kicked off operations at a 17 MW solar power plant to power its Sur desalination facility, Oman News Agency reports. Veolia Water and TotalEnergies set up a JV in August to build the USD 14.8 mn solar farm which has a production capacity of 30 GWh annually and will offset some 300k tons of carbon emissions annually.

Is the tide turning on energy-intensive desalination? Acwa Power inaugurated KSA’s first large-scale solar-powered desalination plant in June and will construct and operate a solar-powered desalination project in Hassyan. Morocco plans to launch a tender for a desalination plant powered by renewable energy with an annual capacity of 250 mn cubic meters by the end of 2024. Tunisia’s Solartech Sud also inaugurated a pilot desalination plant powered by solar thermal energy to supply water to an oil mill in the southeastern town of Zarzis.