The first utility-scale solar energy project developed using funding from outside the country has been commissioned.

The Al Husainiyah project, located 200km south of Amman in Ma’an Governorate, was financed by Dutch development bank FMO and German investment corporation DEG. Dubai-based energy firm AMEA Power owns 70% of the project whilst Jordan firm Philadelphia Solar owns a 30% stake.

State utility Al Husainiyah Power Generation Company will operate the project for 20 years, avoiding more than 3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The project will generate enough electricity to power some 50,000 households.

The project, which employed 400 people during the construction phase, aims to ensure secure energy supply, expand the country’s clean energy portfolio, and provide consumers with affordable electricity while decarbonising Jordan’s energy sector.

The plant comprises over 200,000 panels manufactured locally in Philadelphia Solar’s facility.

The project was awarded following the second round of Jordan’s renewables feed-in-tariff (FiT) programme.

The project is AMEA Power’s second in Jordan after the launch of a wind power project in July 2021. This means the Dubai firm now operates 100MW of renewable energy capacity in Jordan.

Hussain AlNowais, Chairman of AMEA Power, said that the project is the firm’s “third operational power plant globally,” and is part of efforts to “support Jordans’s ambitions to increase the share of renewables in its power mix to 30% by 2030, and to reduce the country’s dependency on fossil fuels.”

AMEA Power has invested over $1 billion in fifteen countries over the past five years and developed up to 1,200MW in energy capacity.