The investment will be the largest private-to-private solar project in Jordan, benefiting from new regulations that allow private consumers to establish their own energy facilities under a process known as “wheeling” that transports electricity from within the grid to facilities outside the grid’s boundaries.
The solar plants have been developed by the Jordanian company Kawar Investment and engineered, procured and constructed by Kawar Energy. Their total capacity is 37 MWp. The operation and maintenance arm of Kawar Energy will be handling the operations and maintenance of all three solar parks for the next 20 years.
The financing is provided by the EBRD with a loan of up to $15 million, the Jordan Kuwait Bank PSC with $9 million, the Arab Jordan Investment Bank (Qatar) with $6 million and the Climate Investment Funds’ Clean Technology Fund with $4.6 million. The project marks the EBRD’s first collaboration with two major Jordanian banks to finance an energy projects.
The three plants are expected to generate around 70 GWh per year in total, reducing CO2 emissions by 41,500 tonnes annually.
The engagement is the EBRD’s first project in Jordan within its southern and eastern Mediterranean Private Renewable Energy Framework (SPREF). The bank launched SPREF in 2015 to support the development and financing of innovative business models to mobilize private finance for renewable energy projects in the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region. The framework is supported by the Clean Technology Fund and the Global Environment Facility.
