The CTF proposed financing of $750 million and to mobilise an additional $4.85 billion from other sources to accelerate deployment of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) in Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia by investing in these countries' CSP programmes, according to the World Bank.
The official, who requested anonymity, told The Jordan Times that the World Bank discussed this financing, which will be in the form of loans, with the government, adding that the government currently has no intention to apply for loans in light of the widening budget deficit and increasing public debt.
But an official at the World Bank regional office, headquartered in Lebanon, said the financing is a mix of grants and concessional loans, which are provided to poorest countries with lower interest rates and longer repayment periods than typical or standard market or multilateral loans.
The World Bank official added that the plan comes as agreed between the countries and the bank in the routine consultations after governments identify areas where assistance is needed and the bank identifies where it can be of assistance.
According to a study conducted by CTF, which is a multidonor trust fund to facilitate deployment of low-carbon technologies at scale, the project will enable the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to contribute the benefit of its unique geography to global climate change mitigation, as no other region has such a favourable combination of physical and market advantages for CSP.
The study, which was made available to The Jordan Times by the World Bank, indicated that the project would support the deployment of about one-gigawatt of CSP generation capacity, amounting to about 15 per cent of the projected CSP global pipeline and a two-fold increase in worldwide CSP installed capacity.
The venture would also support associated transmission infrastructure in the MENA region for domestic supply and exports, as part of a Mediterranean grid enhancement that would enable the scaling up of CSP through market integration in the region.
In addition to leveraging over $3 billion in public and private investments for CSP power plants, thereby almost tripling current global investments in CSP, the project would support MENA countries to achieve their development goals of energy security, industrial growth and diversification, and regional integration, according to the study.
�The MENA region has physical attributes that make it particularly promising for CSP scale up as it has amongst it the world�s best production conditions for solar power: abundant sunshine, low precipitation, and plenty of unused flat land close to road networks and transmission grids,� the report said.
The consumption of electricity in MENA is growing faster than in other regions and countries are looking to scale up renewable energy to diversify their fuel mix away from hydrocarbons, and to enhance energy security, according to CTF.
According to figures by the National Energy Research Centre, Jordan's energy bill in 2007 stood at JD2.3 billion, equal to 56.4 per cent of the country's gross exports and 20.3 per cent of its gross domestic product.
Around 65 per cent of the energy consumed in the Kingdom depends on oil, 32 per cent on imported liquid gas and only 2 per cent on renewable energy.
The national energy strategy calls for 10 per cent of the country's energy demands to be met by renewable energy sources, 29 per cent by natural gas, 14 per cent from oil shale and 6 per cent from nuclear energy within the next decade.
6 January 2010
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