Amman, Jordan: The Baynouna Solar Energy Company (BSCE), a joint venture between UAE renewable energy company Masdar and Finnish investment and asset management group Taaleri, announced the formal inauguration of the 200-megawatt (MW) Baynouna Solar Park, the largest clean energy project in Jordan, on Saturday.
The inauguration was held in the presence of Bisher Al Khasawneh, Prime Minister of Jordan, and was attended by Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, COP28 President-Designate, and Chairman of Masdar; Dr Saleh Al Kharabsheh, Jordan’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources; and Sheikh Khalifa Bin Mohammed Bin Khalid Al Nahyan, UAE Ambassador to Jordan, among others.
Dr. Al Jaber said: “In partnership with the Jordanian government, the Baynouna Solar Park will contribute to Jordan’s climate targets, provide access to clean energy, create jobs and ensure economic growth. Along with our other project here – the Tafila Wind Farm – Masdar is already helping Jordan to produce 29 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources and will support its goal of increasing that to 50 per cent by the end of the decade.
“Ambitious, transformative partnerships like these are precisely what we need if we are to deliver on the promise of the Paris Agreement and continue to ensure that we are holding back emissions, not progress. COP28 will focus on moving from goals to implementation, with a clear focus on demonstrable action on mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and finance, as we aim to keep the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees alive.”
Developed through a power purchase agreement between Masdar and National Electric Power Company, Jordan’s state electricity provider, the Baynouna Solar Park produces over 560 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of energy annually – enough to power 160,000 homes. The plant also displaces 360,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to taking nearly 80,000 cars off the road.
Masdar also operates the 117 MW Tafila Wind Farm, which was completed in 2015 – the first commercial utility-scale wind project in the Middle East. In November 2022, Masdar signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to explore the development of a further 2 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy projects in the country.
