In a recent interview with the king of Jordan His Majesty King Abdullah II CNBC Middle East correspondent Hadley Gamble raised questions pertaining to the energy future of the Hashemite kingdom. Greentechlead brings you portions of the interview, which went on air from Thursday:
HG: You have a water crisis and are dealing with the fact that you are a net-energy importer. How are you tackling those problems?
HMKA: Because of the lack of gas that we get from Egypt, we have had to move quickly. Jordan has always been able to adapt to all the challenges that we have had. And that’s why you are seeing a major investment into alternative energy.
We are going to move with the Chinese on a very big deal on wind and solar — about 1,000 megawatts. That’s going to be the niche that Jordan is going to move in. You are going to see a huge jump in renewables for Jordan in the very near future.
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HG: You were talking about the deal with the Chinese. What other deals are we going to see in the pipeline?
HMKA: We do obviously have nuclear, for two power plants that are on the table. Renewables for many different countries, but the big one at this stage is the Chinese. We are the first country definitely in the region, where the government — we at the Royal Court — are starting it, and most government institutions, and military/security, are all going for administrational vehicles, all electric.
We have an initiative that we launched recently for about 50 schools, but all 3,000 schools in Jordan will all be on renewable energy; so all our public schools will be renewable in the next two years. So I think this shows the trend of how we are thinking, how we are adapting.
Ajith Kumar S