EBRD loan to fund 86MW wind power plant in Maan

AMMAN — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan of $70 million to Green Watts Renewable Energy LLC for the construction of an 86 megawatt (MW) wind power plant in Maan Governorate. 

The plant is the first wind project developed under round one of Jordan’s renewable energy feed-in-tariff programme and will increase the country’s installed wind capacity by around 40 per cent, the bank said in a statement to The Jordan Times on Monday.

The total project cost for Al Rajef wind farm amounts to $185 million. 

The EBRD loan will be accompanied by parallel loans of $50 million from Proparco (Société de Promotion et de Participation pour la Coopération Economique S.A.) and $19.4 million from DEG-Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (German Investment and Development Corporation). 

The EBRD has been supporting Jordan’s renewable energy programme since 2012, including financing solar photovoltaic power plants totalling 60MW to date. 

In Jordan, the annual daily average of solar irradiance ranges from 5-7 kilowatt hours per square metre, which is almost twice the ratio in Germany, which by mid-2015 generated 34 per cent of its electricity via renewable energy project.

Renewable energy projects in Jordan contribute 3-4 per cent to the national electricity grid and the figure is scheduled to reach 10 per cent by 2020.

Jordan enjoys outstanding wind and solar resources, which provide the opportunity for the country to reduce its energy costs and ‎hydrocarbon dependence without burdening the government’s balance sheet, the statement said. 

Jordan is leading the Middle East in mobilising private capital to deliver renewable energy. Since 2012, nine solar plants and one wind farm project have been built by the private sector and are generating electricity, reducing the country’s energy imports and its hydrocarbon dependence, the bank added. 

“Jordan is facing a serious challenge to meet the growing demand for electricity in a sustainable and affordable manner. We are very proud to step up our commitment by financing this wind power plant and we look forward to getting even more deeply involved in Jordan’s energy sector in the near future,” Nandita Parshad, EBRD director for power and energy, said in the statement.

Jordan became an EBRD country of operations in 2012, and since then, the bank has committed 613 million euros through 29 projects in various sectors of the economy.