‘Norwegian company to complete three solar power plants in Maan in 2015’

AMMAN — Scatec Solar ASA, a Norwegian developer, has announced that it will complete construction of three solar-run power plants in the south of Jordan in the second half of 2015 after securing $100 million in financing.

The Norwegian company said in a statement posted Monday on its website that it has entered along with its partners into a financing agreement totalling $100 million for the development and construction of three solar power plants with a total capacity of 43 megawatts (MW), and total investments are estimated at around $135 million.

The debt financing will be provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the French development agency Société de Promotion et de Participation pour la Coopération Economique (Proparco), the company said.

Under the project — developed jointly by Scatec Solar and its Jordanian partners, Quest Energy Investment LLC, European Jordanian Renewable Energy Projects LLC and Greenland Alternative Energy LLC — three plants will be constructed in Maan, some 220km south of Amman.

Scatec Solar will own 70 per cent of the 10MW Oryx plant and 40 per cent of the two other plants totalling 33MW in capacity, it said, adding that completion of the plants is scheduled for the second half of 2015.

Annual production from the three plants is estimated at 104,000MW  hours, generating some $17 million in revenues per year. 

The electricity produced will be sold under a 20-year power purchase agreement with the National Electric Power Company.

Nandita Parshad, EBRD director for power and energy, told The Jordan Times recently that the bank is committed to supporting Jordan in the field of energy and renewable energy.

She said the bank will sign several loans before the end of this year to support the improvement of grids in the central and northern parts of the country with Jordan Electric Power Company and Irbid District Electricity Company.

The $50 million loan by EBRD for Scatec Solar’s project increases the volume of investment by EBRD in Jordan’s renewable energy sector to $75 million, after it extended a $25 million loan to the 20MW SunEdison Maan Solar project in September.

Earlier this week, Energy Minister Mohammad Hamed said more projects in the field of renewable energy are expected to be announced during the next few months.

He added that the ministry has recently opened the door for companies for pre-qualification to build a 65-75MW solar run power plant in Quweira.

The minister added that the deadline for companies for submitting requests for this plant is December 4.

According to Hamed, several renewable energy power plants with a total capacity of 1,800MW will be operational and connected to the grid by 2018.

Jordan, which imports about 97 per cent of its energy needs at around 20 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product annually, is implementing a strategy to increase renewable energy contribution to the overall energy mix to 10 per cent by 2020.