Gov’t floats tender to expand national power grid by 1,000MW

AMMAN — More renewable energy projects will be implemented in the Kingdom after the government on Saturday announced plans for expanding the national power grid.

Due to the limited capacity of the power grid, the government had cancelled plans for several solar and wind plants geared at power generation over the past few months.

On Saturday, the government floated a tender to expand the grid’s capacity by an additional 1,000 megawatts (MW).

The JD100 million project, referred to as the Green Corridor, will help absorb power to be generated by renewable energy plants already under construction, and soon-to-be operational plants, Haidar Gammaz, spokesperson of the Energy Ministry, told The Jordan Times.

Financed by the European Investment Bank, French Development Agency and the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility, “the project is strategic and vital for Jordan’s strategy to increase reliance on clean and environment-friendly sources of power,” the official said.

The project, which will be completed in 2018, will create some 1,000 jobs, Gammaz added.

According to the national energy strategy, renewable energy projects are expected to generate 1,500MW of electricity by 2020. 

The Kingdom imports about 97 per cent of its energy needs annually at about 18 per cent of the gross domestic product, according to the ministry’s figures. 

Jordan has one of the highest annual daily averages of solar irradiance in the world, with an estimated 330 days of sunshine per year. Wind speeds in the country are as high as 7.5 to 11.5 metres per second in hilly areas.