(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation on Tuesday launched a solar-electric generation project as part of the government's strategy to switch to renewable energy at government offices to reduce high-cost oil and gas imports that have been straining the treasury.
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhouri and US Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director in Jordan, Beth Paige, inaugurated the project at the ministry that will be funded by the agency.
Fakhouri said the ministry's solar electricity project is in line with His Majesty King Abdullah's directives, adding that the first stage of a similar project to use solar cells to generate electricity at Royal Court facilities had gotten underway recently.
He said the switch to solar power is part of the ministry's efforts to reduce the energy bill at its departments by utilizing renewable energy and is also in line with "the government's policy to encourage ministries to install renewable energy systems." The inauguration of the project, Fakhouri noted, is a distinctive experience and a model that will be passed on to most state agencies to rely on renewable energy and dispose of traditional energy sources to save money and protect the environment.
He said Jordan is seeking to increase renewable energy generation output in the Kingdom and towards this end, the government, in cooperation with the USAID-funded energy capacity development project, highlighted the potentials of renewable/solar energy production and available opportunities in Jordan through the ministry's solar energy project.
The solar cells system is aimed to slash the electricity bill as it will save the ministry 15-20 per cent of the annual electricity expenses and the cost of the system will be recovered in 2-3 years.
Paige said the USAID had offered a JD55,000 grant to install an electro-optical system on the ministry's building with a capacity of 50KWp.
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