Report by Mashhour Abu Eid
AMMAN, Sept 21 (KUNA) -- Jordan is striving to diversify its energy resources in order to reduce the burden of its costs, which is a pressure on the budget of a country that imports about 95 percent of its electricity production needs in a bill of nearly USD four billion last year.
Since 2007, Jordan has resorted to the option of renewable energy (sun and wind), making a quantum leap in the field of clean energy, with a current capacity of 1300 MW of solar and wind energy to reach 2400 MW by 2020.
According to the government plan, Jordan aims to reach about 20 percent of the electricity generated by the sun and wind by next year, compared to one percent in 2014.
Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) met on Saturday with Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Hala Zawati to highlight the government's efforts to find solutions in line with the economic situation of the Kingdom towards meeting the challenges of high energy costs.
Zawati said that what was witnessed in 2011 of decline in the supply of Egyptian gas and final interruption and the rise in oil prices in global markets, which reached its peak in 2014, were "factors that led Jordan to resort to options to diversify energy sources and strengthen domestic ones." She added that the government quickly grasped these challenges by resorting to renewable energy sources on the one hand, as well as the establishment of (Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah LNG) port in the coastal city of Aqaba, which contributed to the rationalization of energy consumption by securing the flow of gas at competitive prices.
She explained that the reliance on renewable energy sources and the port has contributed to a major reduction in energy costs, whose bills posed pressure on the Jordanian budget and carried losses of about USD seven billion after 2011.
The minister focused on Jordan's innovative solutions in the field of renewable energy, saying "the government is working to exploit renewable energy sources through projects that supply the electricity system with new generating capacities." The government has been keen to provide homes, industries, schools and places of worship with solar cells to generate electricity from renewable energy in order to reduce the electricity bill on these facilities, which are classified as part of government's subsidized segments tariffs.
In the field of investment in renewable energy projects, Zawati explained that the Jordanian government has attracted more than 30 international companies to generate electricity using renewable energy sources systems (sun and winds) according to the direct bidding system, to reach 2400 MW by 2020, which represents 20% of the total electricity in The kingdom.(end).
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