Earlier this year, Three Pillars Consulting (TPC) was accredited by and signed a local issuer agreement with the International REC Standard Foundation (I-REC Standard) to help implement and support the development of a renewable energy tracking system to track the ownership of renewable generation throughout the country.
“I-RECs for electricity are a powerful tool because they allow end-users and energy consumers to make reliable and meaningful claims that they are consuming clean, carbon-free, renewable energy,” explains Michael Tsang, founder of Three Pillars Consulting. Michael added that “I-RECs for electricity, in this way, provide a secondary revenue stream for renewable energy producers, allowing them to generate additional revenue from their renewable energy production, strengthening the market conditions and supporting the development of these in-demand projects over time”.
The timing could not be better for Oman as the country has recently unveiled some of its first large scale renewable energy projects in 2020 such as the 50 MW Wind Farm in Dhofar, as well as the 100 MW Amin Solar PV Plant resulting in carbon-free energy being produced daily in the country. While the generation is carbon-free, the electricity gets sent into the electrical grid and mixed with other sources of electricity generation such as energy coming from natural gas plants. Without any way to track renewable energy, it is not possible for any single user to claim they are consuming the renewable energy in the grid. EACs, like I-RECs for electricity (I-REC(E)s), are also one of the primary ways in which companies make claims for consuming 100% renewable energy.
Renewable energy is on track to play a big role in the future development of Oman. Over the coming decade, Oman has committed to generating 30% of its electricity generation from renewables. More recently, the Director-General of Meteorology Department at Oman’s Civil Aviation Authority submitted an update to the Sultanate’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) for the Paris Agreement, where the country plans to control its emissions by 7% in 2030. Much of those reductions will come from the generation of renewable energy such as solar photovoltaics and wind.
For more information on these developments, see this article published in the Oman Observer.
For more information regarding Three Pillars Group, go here.