Spains Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) and Jordans National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) signed on Sunday a 20-year power purchase agreement agreement (PPA) concerning a 50 MW solar PV plant to be built in Mafraq, located approximately 80km to the north of Jordans capital city, Amman.
NEPCO, which is Jordans publicly owned power transmission company, will purchase the generated electricity from Fotowatios PV plant at 4.8949 JOD cents per Kwh ($0.067/kWh), which is the result of Jordans second tender concluded in May.
The countrys second tender had led to the procurement of four 50 MW PV projects, and FRV is the first to sign such a PPA.
One of the initial winners of the inaugural tender was Greeces relatively unknown GI Karnomourakis SunRise PV Systems company, which agreed a price of 4.3441 JOD cents per kWh ($0.06/kWh) for the feed-in tariff (FIT).
The solar farm in Mafraq will cost an estimated $85 million, said Jordans Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. The project is also expected to create some 150 jobs during the installation phase, and 20 jobs during its operation.
A third tender to procure the installation of an additional 200 MW of PV capacity has been canceled, and the only large-scale project tender confident of proceeding is at Quweira where a 65 MW to 75 MW plant is in the offing, for which the government has announced it has already secured the land. The Quweira tender has been significantly delayed compared to the ministrys initial timeframe; initial bids were submitted a year ago.
Jordans solar PV sector enjoys an active net metering segment too, with large power consumers (e.g. universities) rushing to install large rooftop PV systems. There are concerns, however, regarding just what the PV sector can expect after the installation of the projects tendered in these first and second rounds.
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