Commercial scale renewable energy development is expected to make headway in 2017 with Oman’s power sector authorities planning to appoint a consultant to assist in the tendering of the nation’s first large-scale solar project. “Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) at this point in time is working on the first stages of tendering for consultancy services for a large-scale solar plant,” the Authority’s Executive Director Qais Saud al Zakwani said. The move bodes well for the launch of the Sultanate’s first commercial-scale solar energy based power plant envisaging an aggregate 200 MW of capacity and procured on the lines of an Independent Power Project (IPP). (Oman Observer)