Jordan’s Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources (MEMR) has invited developers to submit expressions of interest (EOI) for the third round of its renewable energy direct proposal programme.

Developers have been invited to submit EOIs by 15 February for the third round of the direct proposal programme. Under the third round, MEMR is planning for the development of 200MW of photovoltaic (PV) solar at a designated site in the Ma’an area, with 100MW of wind power projects to be developed in the southern part of Jordan at a site to be chosen by the developer.

Interestingly, for the third round, the expression of interest documents for the third round state that any solar and wind proposals including battery storage will be “seen as an advantage.” If projects with battery solutions are successful, this would mark the first utility-scale renewable projects in the region to utilise battery storage to enable off-peak power. While some utilities such as the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) are moving ahead with plans to use concentrated solar power (CSP) to enable storage of intermittent renewable energy, Jordan would be the first to utilise battery storage for large-scale PV and wind in the region.

The third round had originally been launched in 2014 with the intention of comprising of four build-own-operate (BOT) projects with a capacity of 100MW each, but was cancelled in the same year due to the lack of grid capacity.

Under the relaunched third round, solar and wind projects will have a maximum capacity of 50MW. Germany’s Fichtner is advising MEMR on the third round of the direct proposal programme.

Successful applicants in the third round will enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with MEMR, which will enable them to proceed with measurement campaigns, feasibility studies, technical integration plans for connection into the national grid as well as other relevant preparatory work.

The invited participants will then submit a direct proposal within the required timeframe to MEMR, following which the client will select the best projects to proceed with. Submitted proposals will be ranked according to price, and the bids with the lowest tariffs will be selected as preferred bidders.

Selected developer consortiums will form project companies to operate as independent power producers (IPP) under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Jordanian government offtaker for a period of 20-25 years.

Two of the four PV solar projects in the second round of the programme have already reached financial close, with one of the remaining two projects close to reaching financial close.

MEED reported in late November that Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power had signed $54m of project finance agreements for its 60MW PV solar project under the second round of the renewables programme. The PV solar plant will be located at Mafraq, and will cost about $72m to develop. In September, Spain’s Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), part of Saudi Arabia’s Abdul Latif Jameel, secured finance for a $95m 50MW PV project under the second round. A second FRV project in the second round is also close to reaching an agreement with development banks.