Jordan’s Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources (MEMR) has invited developers to submit expressions of interest for a project to develop an electrical storage project for renewable energy in the Ma’an Development area of Jordan.

The electrical storage project will have a power capacity of at least 30MW, with an energy capacity of 60MWh, which will primarily be used for controlling photovoltaic (PV) solar and wind energy. The project will the first phase of electrical storage in Jordan.

Companies must submit expressions of interest by 28 September 2017. The contract will involve the design, financing, construction, commissioning and ownership and maintenance (BOM) of the electrical storage facility.

Germany’s Fichtner is advising the MEMR on the storage project.

The first phase will involve the construction of the 30MW electrical storage project, which will be developed in the Ma’an Development Area, which is connected to the existing Ma’an solar substation. The scheduled commissioning date for the first phase is April 2019.

In May, Jordan prequalified groups to participate in the third round of its renewable energy 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.

The expression of interest documents for the third round stated that any solar and wind proposals including battery storage will be “seen as an advantage.” If projects with battery solutions are successful in Jordan, they would mark the first utility-scale renewable projects in the region to utilise battery storage to enable off-peak power.