Energy In Jordan
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Energy in Jordan describes
energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
and
electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
production, consumption and import in
Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
. Jordan is among the highest in the world in dependency on foreign energy sources, with 92.3% of the country's energy supply being imported. Moreover, multiple attacks on the
Arab Gas Pipeline The Arab Gas Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline in the Middle East. It originates near Arish in the Sinai Peninsula and was built to export Egyptian natural gas to Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, with branch underwater and overland pipelines to and ...
from 2011-2014 which supplies 88% of the country's electricity generation needs - forced the country’s power plants onto diesel and
heavy fuel oil Heavy fuel oil (HFO) is a category of fuel oils of a tar-like consistency. Also known as bunker fuel, or residual fuel oil, HFO is the result or remnant from the distillation and cracking process of petroleum. For this reason, HFO contains seve ...
, costing the treasury millions of dinars and pushing the national energy bill to record highs, over JD4 billion. Primary energy use in Jordan was, in 2009, 87 TWh and 15 TWh per million persons and, in 2008, 82 TWh and 14 TWh/million persons.IEA Key energy statistics 2011Statistics 2010
Page: Country specific indicator numbers from page 48
In 2021, the composition of the total energy supply (TES) consisted of 51% oil, 38% gas, 3% coal, and 8%
renewables Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind power, and hydropower. Bioenergy and ...
. Modern renewables (that is, non-fossil fuel, non-biomass sources) made up 10% of final energy consumption in 2020; this is an increase from 3% in 2015.


Overview


Renewable energy initiatives

Law No. 13, enacted on April 12, 2012, aims to elevate Jordan's renewable energy share to 7% by 2015 and 10% by 2020, in alignment with the National Energy Efficiency Strategy. This legislation focuses on enhancing the country's commitment to renewable energy and energy efficiency. It authorizes the
Ministry of Energy A ministry of energy or department of energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rela ...
to identify Renewable Energy Development Zones and streamline the project approval process, requiring developers to demonstrate five years of renewable energy experience and enter into Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with the National Electricity Power Company (NEPCO). Furthermore, the Jordan Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Fund (JREEEF) was created to provide financial support to the sector, funded both domestically and internationally. The Jordan Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Fund (JREEEF) aims to increase renewable energy's contribution to 20% of Jordan's energy mix by 2020. It focuses on promoting energy efficiency, attracting investments, creating
green jobs Green jobs (green-collar jobs, sustainability jobs, eco jobs or environmental jobs) are, according to the United Nations Environment Program, "work in agricultural, manufacturing, research and development (R&D), administrative, and ser ...
, and securing project funding. Through various divisions, JREEEF undertakes agreement drafting, project evaluations, financing program development, and ensures compliance with energy projects. It also engages in market research and collaborates with the government and donors.


Electricity


Natural gas

Natural gas is increasingly being used to fulfill the country’s domestic energy needs, especially with regard to electricity generation. Jordan was estimated to have only modest natural gas reserves (about 6 billion cubic meters in 2002), but new estimates suggest a much higher total. In 2003 the country produced and consumed an estimated 390 million cubic meters of natural gas. The primary source is located in the eastern portion of the country at the Risha gas field. In the past, the country imported the bulk of its natural gas via the
Arab Gas Pipeline The Arab Gas Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline in the Middle East. It originates near Arish in the Sinai Peninsula and was built to export Egyptian natural gas to Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, with branch underwater and overland pipelines to and ...
that stretches from the Al Arish terminal in Egypt underwater to Al Aqabah and then to northern Jordan, where it links to two major power stations. This Egypt–Jordan pipeline supplied Jordan with approximately 1 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas per year."Country Profile: Jordan"
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
Federal Research Division The Federal Research Division (FRD) is the research and analysis unit of the United States Library of Congress. The Federal Research Division provides directed research and analysis on domestic and international subjects to agencies of the Unite ...
(September 2006).
Jordan has developed one gas field, at Risha in the eastern desert near the border with
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
. The current output of around per day from the Risha field is used to fuel one nearby power plant, which generates about 10% of Jordan's electricity.MBendi: Natural Gas Liquid Extraction in Jordan
/ref> In May 2001, a 30-year agreement had been concluded with Egypt for gas sales to begin at a rate of per day beginning in 2003. Construction of the section of the pipeline in Egypt began in late 2001, starting from the existing pipeline terminus at El-Arish in Sinai. This section was completed in mid-2003, allowing deliveries to begin to one power plant at Aqaba. In August 2003, Jordan began imports of natural gas from Egypt. The second phase of the project, which connected to the
Rihab Rihab is a village in Mafraq Governorate, in northern Jordan. Antique church buildings Rihab is home to numerous natural caves and dozens of churches, most of which date back to the late sixth or early seventh century. St. George's church in AMOR ...
power plant approximately 70 km north of the capital Amman, was completed in early 2006. The plant site is approximately 835 meters above sea level and located within a rural area surrounded by extensive agricultural land. The Rihab power plant comprises 2 simple cycle gas turbines which are nominally rated at 30 MW gross and a 297 MW combined-cycle gas turbine which comprises 2 gas turbines with 100 MW and 1 steam turbine with 97 MW. Gas supplies from Egypt were halted in 2013 due to insurgent activities in the Sinai and domestic gas shortages in Egypt. In light of this, a
liquified natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...
terminal was built in the Port of Aqaba to facilitate gas imports. In 2017, a low-capacity gas pipeline from Israel was completed which supplies the
Arab Potash The Arab Potash Company (APC) is a Jordanian company that is primarily involved in harvesting minerals from the Dead Sea. It is the eighth largest potash producer worldwide by volume of production and the sole Arab producer of potash. The company ...
factories near the Dead Sea. As of 2018, a large capacity pipeline from Israel is under construction in northern Jordan which is expected to begin operating by 2020 and will supply the kingdom with 3 BCM of gas per year, thereby satisfying the bulk of Jordan’s natural gas consumption needs.


Oil shale

Oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich Granularity, fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of Organic compound, organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general compos ...
represents a significant potential resource in Jordan. Oil shale deposits underlie more than 60% of Jordanian territory, and are estimated at 40 to 70 billion tonnes of oil shale. The deposits include a high quality
marinite Marinite is a gray to dark-gray or black oil shale of marine origin in which the chief organic components are lamalginite and bituminite derived from marine phytoplankton, with varied admixtures of bitumen, telalginite and vitrinite. Marinite de ...
oil shale of
Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...
to early
Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...
age. The most important and investigated deposits are located in west-central Jordan, where they occur at the surface and close to developed infrastructure. Although oil shale was utilized in northern Jordan prior to and during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, intensive exploration and studies of Jordan's oil shale resource potential started in the 1970s and 1980s, being motivated by higher oil prices, modern technology and better economic potential. As of 2011, no
oil shale industry The oil shale industry is an industry of mining and processing of oil shale—a fine-grained sedimentary rock, containing significant amounts of kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds), from which liquid hydrocarbons can be manufa ...
exists in Jordan, but several companies are considering both
shale oil extraction Shale oil extraction is an industrial process for unconventional oil production. This process converts kerogen in oil shale into shale oil by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. The resultant shale oil is used as fuel oil or ...
and oil shale
combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...
for thermal power generation.


Nuclear

Jordan has signed memoranda of understanding with the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Japan, China, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Argentina, Romania, and Turkey. Plans are in place to construct two 1,000MW reactors, nearly doubling the Kingdom's electricity generation capacity, by 2022. Jordan plans to get 60% of its energy needs from nuclear energy by 2035. According to the JAEC, all evaluations took into account the highest safety requirements, including lessons from the Fukushima incident. The plants will be used for electricity generation and desalination. In December 2009, Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) in cooperation with a consortium headed by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute signed an agreement with
Daewoo Heavy Industries Doosan Enerbility Co., Ltd., (a combination of words Energy and Sustainability) formerly known as Doosan Heavy Industries, is a heavy industrial company headquartered in Changwon, South Korea. It was established in 1962. Its business includes ...
to build a its first 5 MW research reactor by 2015 at the
Jordan University of Science and Technology The Jordan University of Science and Technology ( ''Jami'at Al-Ulum wa Al-Tiknolojia Al-Urdunia''), often abbreviated JUST, is a public university, public technological university located on the outskirts of Irbid, at Ar Ramtha in northern Jor ...
.


Renewables

The National Energy Strategy includes ambitious targets to increase the contribution of
renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...
sources to the national energy supply. The share of renewable energy in the total energy mix is anticipated to reach 7% by 2015 and 10% by 2020. The government is looking to generate 30–50 MW of biomass by 2020.'Unstable’ gas supplies highlight potential energy crisis in Jordan'
/ref> By November 2014 Jordan had 10 MW of installed capacity from renewable energy, and had over 15 renewable energy power plants in progress to be completed by the end of 2015, raising the installed capacity to 500 MW, representing 14% of the overall installed capacity.


Solar

Jordan lies within the solar belt of the world with average solar radiation ranging between 5 and 7 
kilowatt-hour A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a comm ...
(kWh) per square metre. Decentralized generation from
photovoltaic system A photovoltaic system, also called a PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to abso ...
s in rural and remote villages is currently used for lighting, water pumping and other social services of up to 1000 kW of peak capacity. In addition, about 15% of all households are equipped with
solar water heating Solar water heating (SWH) is water heating, heating water by sunlight, using a solar thermal collector. A variety of configurations are available at varying cost to provide solutions in different climates and latitudes. SWHs are widely used for ...
systems.Solar Energy in Jordan
/ref> In May 2012, a 280 kW solar electricity system was inaugurated to be used at El Hassan Science City. As per the Energy Master Plan, 30 percent of all households are expected to be equipped with solar water heating system by 2020. The government had hoped to construct the first
concentrated solar power Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated whe ...
(CSP) demonstration project. It is also planning to have solar desalination plant. According to the national strategy the planned installed capacity will amount to 300–600 MW consisting of CSP, PV and
hybrid system A hybrid system is a dynamical system that exhibits both continuous and discrete dynamic behavior – a system that can both ''flow'' (described by a differential equation) and ''jump'' (described by a state machine, automaton, or a differ ...
s by 2020. Several projects with a total capacity of 400 MW were allocated in two 200-megawatt tender rounds in 2015.
First Solar First Solar, Inc. is a publicly traded American manufacturer of solar panels, and provider of utility-scale PV power plants, supporting services that include finance, construction, maintenance and end-of-life panel recycling. First Solar uses ...
signed a Build-Operate-Maintain contract with the Jordanian government for the 52.5 MW Shams Ma'an Solar PV power plant, with a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA). Construction of the plant was expected to start in early 2015 and finish in 2016. The ''Shams Ma'an project'' was tendered in the first round and granted a tariff of US 14.8¢ per kilowatt-hour, while the second round drew record-low tariffs of six and seven cents per kilowatt hour for each of the four 50-megawatt projects (US 6.13¢, 6.49¢, 6.91¢ and 7.67¢ per kWh). These tariffs belong to the worldwide lowest so far ever allocated and are not much above the world record tariff of US ¢5.89 per kWh tendered in early 2015 for the second phase of the
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is a solar park spread over a total area of in Saih Al-Dahal, about south of the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is one of the world's largest renewable projects based on an indep ...
in the United Arab Emirates. A plan to put solar panels at all 6000 mosques in the country was announced in February 2015. Jordan inaugurated its first solar-powered charging station for electric cars in February 2012. Located at El Hassan Science City (EHSC), the station is considered the first step towards promoting solar-powered vehicles and building more solar-charging facilities on the streets of Jordan. The
Sahara Forest Project The Sahara Forest Project aims to provide fresh water, food and renewable energy in hot, arid regions as well as re-vegetating areas of uninhabited desert. The founding team was composed of Seawater Greenhouse Ltd, Exploration Architecture, Max ...
, a Norwegian endeavour to create oases in hot, arid and uninhabited lands, is currently being implemented in the southern city of Aqaba, with the cooperation of the
Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority The Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) is the financially and administratively autonomous institution responsible for the management, regulation, and the development of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ). History The Aqaba speci ...
, to address its food, water and energy challenges. The objective of the project is to enable restorative growth, revegetation, and creation of green jobs through the profitable production of food, freshwater, bio fuels and electricity. The three core components of the Sahara Forest Project are saltwater-cooled greenhouses,
concentrated solar power Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated whe ...
(CSP) for electricity and heat generation, and technologies for desert revegetation. In October 2016, Jordan signed a power purchase agreement with Masdar, a clean energy developer based in Abu Dhabi, UAE to build the biggest single solar installation in the country, Baynouna Solar Power Plant, with a 200 MW capacity. The project became operational in 2020 and delivers the equivalent of 160,000 local households with their power needs.


Wind

Jordan currently operates three wind power plants at Ibrahimyah, Hofa and Tafila. The Ibrahimyah plant, located approximately 80 km north of Amman, consists of 4 wind turbines with capacity 0.08 MW for each. The Hofa plant, located approximately 92 km north of Amman, consists of 5 wind turbines with capacity 0.225 MW for each. The Tafila Wind Farm is located in
Tafilah Governorate Tafilah () is one of the governorates of Jordan, located about 180 km south-west of Amman, Jordan's capital. Tafilah Governorate is bordered by Karak Governorate to the north, Ma'an Governorate to the east and south, Aqaba Governorate to th ...
in south-west Jordan. The Tafila Wind Farm has a capacity of 117 MW and produces 390 gigawatt-hours annually powering 83,000 homes.


See also

*
Economy of Jordan The economy of Jordan is classified by the World Food Programme as an upper-middle income economy, as well as being poor in resources with limited land for agriculture. Jordan's GDP per capita rose by 351% in the 1970s, declined 30% in the 1980 ...


References

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