ACME Group on Monday said it has inked an agreement with Norway-based Scatec ASA to invest in its Oman project with a 50-50 joint venture (JV) to design, develop, build, and operate a large-scale green ammonia facility.
“The first phase of the facility is expected to produce 100,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually and will be expanded to 1.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) with about 3.5 gigawatts (GW) of electrolyser capacity, which will be powered by 5.5 GWp of the solar PV plant. The facility will be located in the Duqm Special Economic Zone of Oman. Potentially, the facility can be further expanded in later phases at the same location,” the Gurugram-based ACME Group said in a statement.
“We are delighted to partner with Scatec in developing one of the largest and earliest green ammonia projects in the world. Given the strategic location of the project, technical insights and cost-effective solutions that ACME has developed for the project of this kind, along with internationally proven project development capabilities of Scatec, I believe jointly we will be a formidable player in accelerating the adoption of this green fuel globally,” ACME Group Founder & Chairman Manoj K Upadhyay said.
ACME said they (the JV) are in the advanced stages of discussions with reputable off-takers for 20–25-year contracts, which will lay the foundation for financing the project. The partners expect to fund the facility through equity and project finance debt. The overall schedule for the project is under development. Still, the partners share the ambition for this facility to be one of the first commercial large-scale green ammonia facilities in operation globally.
“Oman has excellent solar resources and a strategic location for production of green ammonia. Acme Group has been in the forefront of green ammonia production with this project, and in Scatec we can capitalise on our expertise in renewables, project structuring and financing, execution and operation to accelerate the decarburisation of the world,” Scatec CEO Raymond Carlsen said.
There is a growing need to accelerate the decarburisation of hard-to-abate industries through Power-to-X solutions such hydrogen, ammonia and other critical feedstocks powered by renewable energy. Industry analysts forecast global annual demand for green ammonia to reach 200 million tonnes by 2050.
ACME is one of India’s leading solar power developers with the project under development and an operational portfolio of 8.5 GW. It is presently setting up a 1.8 GW generation capacity which will be one of the world’s largest single location solar generation facilities. In green hydrogen and ammonia, besides the under development Oman project, the firm has set up the world’s first single-location integrated solar power to green ammonia facility at Bikaner Rajasthan.