14 DAY TRIAL // News from the Middle East says that, in the not so distant future, Jordan will become the proud owner of a massive wind farm. The utility-scale wind farm will be the first of its kind to have ever been built in this country.
Information shared with the public says that, should things go according to plan, the wind farm will start generating electricity sometime next year. However, it will only become fully operational in 2015.
When up and running at full capacity, the 117MW facility, dubbed the Tafila Wind Farm, will roll out an impressive 400GWh of electricity annually.
According to Business Green, this output will translate into a 3% increase in Jordan's overall power capacity. What's more, the wind farm is expected to offset some 235,000 tons of yearly CO2 emissions.
“[The project is a] major step toward getting Jordan on the renewable energy map of the world,” Samer Judeh, chairman of the Jordan Wind Project Company commented on the importance of this green initiative.
“Our country has suffered from a lack of domestic conventional energy sources and from serious challenges in security of energy imports. Jordan, however, has abundant renewable resources, and this will be the first and a showcase for many such projects to come,” he went on to argue.
The same source tells us that, back in 2010, Jordan passed a law, i.e. the Renewable and Energy Efficiency Law, saying that, by 2015, 7% of the electricity produced in the country must come from harvesting green sources. The same law says that, by 2020, said percentage is to increase to 10%.
By the looks of it, the $290 million (€213.5 million) Tafila Wind Farm is the first green energy facility to be erected under the country's Renewable and Energy Efficiency Law.
What's more, specialists estimate that, once it becomes operational, it will account for 10% of Jordan's green energy target for the year 2020.