Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), part of Saudi Arabia’s Abdul Latif Jameel, has secured finance for a $95m 50MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Jordan.

The Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC) arranged the $76m project finance package.

The IFC and the Canada Climate Change Program (CCCP) extended $21m, and the IFC mobilised $12m from Dutch development bank FMO, $8m from Europe Arab Bank and $5m from Finnish development bank FinnFund. CCCP and the IFC extended a further $2.4m C-loan.

The FRV project in Mafraq is the first project from Jordan’s second round of solar schemes to secure finance.

The IFC used the first round of solar, where it financed seven of 12 projects, as a model.

The FRV solar project is due to be commissioned in 2018. The new plant will supply power at 6.9 $cents a kilowatt hour, under a power purchase agreement signed with Jordan’s National Electric Power Company (Nepco).

Nepco signed PPAs in late 2015 and early 2016 for four 50MW solar PV projects. The developers were Saudi Oger, China’s Swiss Hareon Solar, Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power, which had acquired a project from Greece’s Sunrise PV and FRV. FRV then acquired a second project from Swiss Hareon,

Saudi Oger’s project has stalled due to the company’s financial issues in its domestic market of Saudi Arabia.

The second FRV and the Acwa project will be financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD). The EBRD is mobilising other lenders such as Proparco.

A number of wind developers have also signed PPAs with Nepco under the first round of renewables projects.

The third round is expected to get underway in late 2016 or 2017, following the Green Corridor project, to upgrade the Jordanian grid.

FRV, in partnership with Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, is also making progress on financing an 800MW solar PV project in Dubai. The project finance is expected to include a significant tranche from Chinese lenders.