Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar has selected International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to oversee the funding of the largest solar power plant in Jordan.

The announcement follows the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) in October between Masdar and National Electric Power Company, Jordan’s state electricity provider, for the 200-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic plant.

The facility, is being developed by the wholly-owned Masdar subsidiary Baynouna Solar Energy Company (BSEC), said a statement from the company.

Masdar chief executive officer Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi and chief financial officer Niall Hannigan, signed a deal with Eric Becker, IFC manager of Infrastructure for the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week today (January 18).

Hannigan said: “Our partnership with IFC will ensure that this landmark project will be developed according to the highest standards of financial best practice, while illustrating the strength of investor confidence in renewable energy.”

Expected to break ground later this year, the solar plant will be built 10 km outside the capital Amman.

Once connected to the national grid, it will supply the annual power needs of around 110,000 homes and displace an estimated 360,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, it said.

Becker said: “The region continues to face serious power shortages, and there is now even greater pressure on infrastructure services.”

“We have been working with Masdar, a key partner, since 2013 and welcome this opportunity to further support the development renewable energy generation capacity across the region,” he added.

The project follows the inauguration of the 117MW Tafila wind farm in Jordan in December 2015, the Middle East’s largest onshore wind power development. Masdar has a 31 per cent stake in Tafila with InfraMed (50 per cent) and EP Global Energy (19 per cent).

The combined output of Tafila and the Baynouna solar project will account for nearly 18 per cent of the 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy Jordan plans to install by 2020.

Masdar’s Clean Energy division is a leading developer and operator of utility-scale, grid-tied projects; applications providing energy access to communities away from the electricity grid; and carbon abatement projects, it added. – TradeArabia News Service