OFID supports ground-breaking solar energy projects in Jordan Marks institution’s first private sector-funded solar initiative

The OFID-funded solar-energy initiatives will help Jordan diversify its fuel mix. Photo: IFC Middle East North Africa.

October 20, 2014, Vienna, Austria. OFID is co-financing the construction of two solar photovoltaic plants in Jordan that will help diversify the country’s fuel mix by creating an additional source of renewable energy. This will, in turn, reduce Jordan’s reliance on imported fossil fuel.

The two plants, the Falcon Ma’an Solar Power in the city of Ma’an and Jordan Solar One in the Mafraq region, will generate around 98GWh of electricity annually. They are part of seven solar plants being syndicated under a wider initiative by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. According to the IFC, the project is the largest private sector-led solar initiative in the Middle East and North Africa.

OFID’s two loans, which total US$24m, mark the first solar initiatives supported under its private sector lending window.

Earlier OFID private sector loans aimed at strengthening Jordan’s energy sector include US$20m to the Jordan Wind Project Company to build a 117-megawatt plant that will produce around 400 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. Another US$20m went to Qatrana Electric Power Company to construct a 373 MW combined cycle gas turbine power-generation facility in Al-Qatrana.