Can renewables help solve Oman’s water challenge?

For a country surrounded by seawater but with limited natural freshwater resources, Oman’s future has always been closely tied to desalination. As the population grows, cities expand and industries develop, the demand for reliable water will only increase.
But producing drinking water from seawater requires large amounts of energy.
That makes Oman’s renewable-energy expansion particularly interesting. The growth of solar and wind power could eventually do more than reduce the carbon intensity of electricity generation. It could help transform the way the country produces one of its most important resources: fresh water.
Desalination has become an essential part of life across the Gulf. Oman relies heavily on desalination plants to supply water to urban centres and industrial areas, with large facilities operating along the coast. Traditionally, these plants have been powered largely by electricity generated from natural gas.
As renewable generation expands, however, there is an opportunity to increasingly connect desalination with clean electricity.
The idea is straightforward. Solar power generated during Oman’s long daylight hours can provide electricity for desalination, while battery storage and flexible plant operation can help manage periods when renewable generation is lower.
This could be particularly attractive for Oman because the country’s strongest renewable resource is also one of its most abundant: sunlight.
Solar photovoltaic technology has become dramatically cheaper over the past decade, making large-scale solar electricity increasingly competitive with conventional generation. Oman has already demonstrated the potential of utility-scale solar through projects such as Ibri II, while further solar and wind projects are being developed across the country.
The combination of renewable energy and desalination could create an important feedback loop.
More renewable electricity means less reliance on gas for power generation. Less gas consumed for electricity could potentially free up additional gas resources for industry or exports. At the same time, using renewable electricity to produce water could reduce the emissions associated with desalination.
The opportunity is not limited to conventional desalination.
Reverse osmosis, which pushes seawater through specialised membranes to remove salt and other impurities, has become one of the most important desalination technologies worldwide. Unlike older thermal desalination methods, reverse osmosis relies primarily on electricity, making it particularly well suited to renewable power.
That does not mean the transition will happen automatically.
Desalination plants need to operate reliably, while solar and wind generation can fluctuate. Water demand also does not necessarily match renewable production. People need water at night as well as during the day and industrial facilities require continuous supplies.
This makes energy storage, smart grid management and careful coordination between electricity and water systems increasingly important.
Oman could therefore find itself at the intersection of two major transitions: the shift towards renewable electricity and the growing need for water security.
There is another potential advantage. New renewable-powered desalination projects could be located strategically near renewable-energy developments, reducing the need to transport electricity long distances. Coastal industrial zones could potentially combine solar or wind generation, desalination and industrial production within integrated energy systems.
The concept could become especially relevant as Oman develops major industrial and green-hydrogen projects. These projects require significant quantities of both electricity and water, creating an opportunity to design energy and water infrastructure together rather than treating them as separate systems.
Green hydrogen itself requires purified water for electrolysis. Every kilogramme of hydrogen produced through electrolysis requires water as a feedstock, meaning large hydrogen projects will need reliable water supplies in addition to enormous amounts of renewable electricity.
That makes desalination an important, if sometimes overlooked, component of the green-hydrogen economy.
The challenge will be ensuring that the expansion of desalination remains economically and environmentally sustainable. Desalination produces concentrated brine, which must be carefully managed, and the energy requirements remain substantial even with more efficient technologies.
Renewable energy does not eliminate those challenges. It changes the equation.
For Oman, the opportunity is to use its exceptional solar and wind resources to reduce the energy burden of producing water while simultaneously building a more resilient electricity system.
The country’s renewable-energy strategy is therefore about more than replacing one source of electricity with another. It could influence how Oman manages some of its most fundamental resources — energy, water and land.
In the coming decades, the most interesting renewable projects may not be the ones that simply produce electricity.
They may be the ones that use clean electricity to produce something Oman needs just as much: water.