Jordan is set to build its first utility-scale wind farm, after the developers agreed financing for the $290m project.

 

The 117MW Tafila Wind Farm is poised to increase the Middle-Eastern country's total power capacity by three per cent, producing approximately 400GWh of electricity each year and displacing 235,000 tons of annual CO2 emissions.

 

Power generation at the site is expected to start in 2014 with full commercial operation slated for the following year, according to the Jordan Wind Project Company (JWPC), a joint venture between the InfraMed infrastructure fund, Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company Masdar, and development company EP Global Energy.

 

Tafila is the first wind power project to be developed under Jordan's Renewable and Energy Efficiency Law, passed in 2010, which commits the country to producing seven per cent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2015, rising to 10 per cent by 2020.

 

The developers said that when the Tafila project is fully developed, it will single-handedly account for almost 10 per cent of Jordan's 2020 target.