During an Amman-based energy conference, Energy Minister Hala Zawati highlighted plans to increase renewable energy’s contribution to 20 per cent of Jordan’s overall energy mix (Photo courtesy of the World Bank website)

AMMAN — The contribution of renewable energy to the national power grid will reach 10 per cent by the end of 2018 and is expected to increase to 20 per cent in 2020, Energy Minister Hala Zawati said on Wednesday.

Opening the sixth conference of the Amman-based Arab Union of Electricity, Zawati said that Jordan has achieved a leading position in renewables with the large projects it has implemented in the sector over the past five years.

“Challenged with a high energy bill, which reached 18 per cent of the GDP in 2018,” Zawati said that Jordan expanded its investments in renewable energy with plans to increase its contribution to the overall energy mix in the Kingdom to 20 per cent in 2020, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Renewable energy projects in Jordan started in 2016, with 10 schemes expected to generate 2,700 megawatts of electricity by 2021, 715 megawatts of which will be from wind resources.

The minister added that Jordan is working on implementing the “first-of-its-kind” project in the region to store electric power generated from renewable sources, expecting the work to begin next year, according to Petra.

Zawati stressed that the Kingdom is keeping pace with developments in the renewable energy field by developing laws that encourage and attract more projects to the sector.