Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar has awarded the construction contract for its planned 50MW wind project in Oman to a consortium of the US’ GE and Spain’s TSK.

The international joint venture will provide and install the components for the first large-scale wind project in the GCC, which will be located in the Dhofar governorate in the southern part of the sultanate. The wind farm will consist of 13 wind turbines, which will be provided by GE.

Masdar signed an agreement with the Rural Areas Electricity Company of Oman (RAECO) to develop the 50MW wind project in 2014.

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development will be providing financing for the wind project.

Although Oman has lagged behind some of its GCC neighbours in pushing ahead with renewable energy utility scale projects, the sultanate is planning to develop a 200MW solar independent power project (IPP) in addition to the Dhofar wind project by 2020.

In July, the Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) received proposals for advisory roles on the sultanate’s first solar IPP. MEED reported in June that OPWP was planning to issue request for proposals (RFPs) for the main developer role on the project in the fourth quarter of 2017. The sultanate’s first major solar project is expected to be a 200MW photovoltaic (PV) scheme. The project is scheduled to be operational in 2020.