ACME Group partners with Scatec to develop ammonia facility in Oman

Renewable energy firm ACME Group and Norway-based Scatec ASA on Monday signed an agreement to establish a 50:50 joint venture to build a large-scale green ammonia facility in Oman.

"The first phase of the facility is expected to produce 100,000 tonne of green ammonia annually and will be expanded to 1.2 million tonne per annum with about 3.5 GW of electrolyser capacity, which will be powered by 5.5 GWp of the solar PV plant," ACME said in a statement.

It did not give investment numbers but ACME had previously put the cost at USD 3.5 billion.

"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," Manoj K Upadhyay, founder and chairman, ACME Group, said.

Raymond Carlsen, CEO, Scatec, said,"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 capitalize on our expertise in renewables, project structuring and financing, execution and operation to accelerate the decarburization of the world."

There is a growing need to accelerate decarburization of hard-to-abate industries through power-to-x solutions such as production of hydrogen, ammonia and other critical feedstocks powered by renewable energy.

Industry analysts forecast global annual demand for green ammonia to reach up to 200 million tonne by 2050.

ACME-Scatec are in advanced discussions with reputable offtakers for 2025-year contracts which will lay the foundation for financing of the project, the statement said adding they expect to fund the facility through equity and project finance debt.

"The overall schedule for the project is under development, but the partners share the ambition for this facility to be one of the first commercial large-scale green ammonia facilities in operation globally," it added.